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> But the production of such vaccines is not easy Oh? " "Manufacturing mRNA vaccines is surprisingly straightforward. Compared to conventional vaccine produc

> But the production of such vaccines is not easy Oh? " "Manufacturing mRNA vaccines is surprisingly straightforward. Compared to conventional vaccine production, mRNA factories are: * 99 - 99.9% smaller * 95 - 99.7% cheaper * 1,000% faster" https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=27061674 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=27061674 https://coronavirus.medium.com/manufacturing-mrna-vaccines-is-surprisingly-straightforward-despite-what-bill-gates-thinks-222cffb686ee https://coronavirus.medium.com/manufacturing-mrna-vaccines-i... https://twitter.com/doctorow/status/1389978947723546625 https://twitter.com/doctorow/status/1389978947723546625 https://aiche.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1002/amp2.10060 https://aiche.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1002/amp2....

deleted 6y ago
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magnio 6y ago
From "Myths of Vaccine Manufacturing"[0] > These will be special-purpose bespoke machines, and if you ask other drug companies if they have one sitting around, the answer will be “Of course not”. This is not anything close to a traditional drug manufacturing process. And this is the single biggest reason why you cannot simply call up those “dozens” of other companies and ask them to shift their existing production over to making the mRNA vaccines. There are not dozens of companies who make DNA templates on the needed scale. There are definitely not dozens of companies who can make enough RNA. But most importantly, I believe that you can count on one hand the number of facilities who can make the critical lipid nanoparticles. Also see this article[1] which details the supply chain of mRNA vaccines as well as the bottleneck of lipid nanoparticle assembly. These mRNA vaccines also have strict requirements for storage/distribution, preventing them from wider usage. [0]: https://blogs.sciencemag.org/pipeline/archives/2021/02/02/myths-of-vaccine-manufacturing https://blogs.sciencemag.org/pipeline/archives/2021/02/02/my... [1]: https://blog.jonasneubert.com/2021/01/10/exploring-the-supply-chain-of-the-pfizer-biontech-and-moderna-covid-19-vaccines/ https://blog.jonasneubert.com/2021/01/10/exploring-the-suppl...
- SideburnsOfDoom 6y ago
  > These will be special-purpose bespoke machines, and if you ask other drug companies if they have one sitting around, the answer will be “Of course not” I'm going to take a guess, but maybe in ten years time, the answer will be "Of course, yes". Why wouldn't it be?
snovv_crash 6y ago
Yes, but it requires specialized machinery and ingredients which are difficult to scale on short notice.
- SideburnsOfDoom 6y ago
  > difficult to scale on short notice Will it be a big deal in the long term then?
  - snovv_crash 6y ago
    Nope, nothing particularly exotic in the raw materials. It's mostly a time issue, complex equipment can't be replicated overnight.
    - SideburnsOfDoom 6y ago
      So, given a decade or two, "Manufacturing mRNA vaccines _will likely be_ surprisingly straightforward and widespread" ? And that will be a big deal.
      - snovv_crash 6y ago
        Hopefully, yes. With the advances in sequencing I see a lot of potential for things like small clinics providing personalized cancer vaccines, for example.

deleted 6y ago

[deleted]

magnio 6y ago

From "Myths of Vaccine Manufacturing"[0] > These will be special-purpose bespoke machines, and if you ask other drug companies if they have one sitting around, the answer will be “Of course not”. This is not anything close to a traditional drug manufacturing process. And this is the single biggest reason why you cannot simply call up those “dozens” of other companies and ask them to shift their existing production over to making the mRNA vaccines. There are not dozens of companies who make DNA templates on the needed scale. There are definitely not dozens of companies who can make enough RNA. But most importantly, I believe that you can count on one hand the number of facilities who can make the critical lipid nanoparticles. Also see this article[1] which details the supply chain of mRNA vaccines as well as the bottleneck of lipid nanoparticle assembly. These mRNA vaccines also have strict requirements for storage/distribution, preventing them from wider usage. [0]: https://blogs.sciencemag.org/pipeline/archives/2021/02/02/myths-of-vaccine-manufacturing https://blogs.sciencemag.org/pipeline/archives/2021/02/02/my... [1]: https://blog.jonasneubert.com/2021/01/10/exploring-the-supply-chain-of-the-pfizer-biontech-and-moderna-covid-19-vaccines/ https://blog.jonasneubert.com/2021/01/10/exploring-the-suppl...

SideburnsOfDoom 6y ago
> These will be special-purpose bespoke machines, and if you ask other drug companies if they have one sitting around, the answer will be “Of course not” I'm going to take a guess, but maybe in ten years time, the answer will be "Of course, yes". Why wouldn't it be?

snovv_crash 6y ago

Yes, but it requires specialized machinery and ingredients which are difficult to scale on short notice.

SideburnsOfDoom 6y ago
> difficult to scale on short notice Will it be a big deal in the long term then?
- snovv_crash 6y ago
  Nope, nothing particularly exotic in the raw materials. It's mostly a time issue, complex equipment can't be replicated overnight.
  - SideburnsOfDoom 6y ago
    So, given a decade or two, "Manufacturing mRNA vaccines _will likely be_ surprisingly straightforward and widespread" ? And that will be a big deal.
    - snovv_crash 6y ago
      Hopefully, yes. With the advances in sequencing I see a lot of potential for things like small clinics providing personalized cancer vaccines, for example.