The COVID-19 pandemic has thrown life off track and has taken in its grasp millions of lives. The only relief from the deadly coronavirus was the arrival of vaccines. Within a few months, the pharmaceutical firms have come up with millions of doses. But, millions of doses are not enough for the world as it now needs billions.
The firms have affirmed that they will produce enough vaccines to immunize almost everyone on the planet by the time 2022 arrives. Of course, they did not consider some major factors. For instance, they did not consider the delays due to political reasons, regulations imposed on export, the delivery of vaccines to the richer countries, etc.
How Many Vaccine Doses Can Be Produced in 2021?
According to an analytics company based in London, the pharmaceutical industry is unwilling to reveal its capacity to produce vaccines. However, there might be rapid growth in production in the following months. If you consider the recent data, by the end of February 2021, the manufacturers can produce over 413 million doses.
If the trend continues, by 2022, there will be 9.5 billion doses going by the forecast by the vaccine manufacturers. In that case, the Global Health Innovation Center researchers predict the figure to be around 12 billion by the end of 2021. Some experts believe that 12 billion doses are achievable not by the end of 2021 but by 2022. They fear that if there is a breakdown in the supply chain, many countries can ban vaccine exports.
European Union has already put restrictions on the export of vaccines. The production of vaccines needs over 200 components such as glass vials, tubing, filters, resin, disposable bags, etc. If there is a shortage of these components, the manufacturing process gets disrupted. Experts at the World Health Organization are hopeful that it will avoid a minimum of one bottleneck. And that is the fill and finish – filling up the glass vials with the substance. The World Health Organization has connected the producers of components to pharmaceutical firms.
Vaccine Inequality
According to the current statistics, high-income and upper-middle-income nations have procured over 6 billion out of total vaccine doses of 8.6 billion. This is the data that has come out on the 19th of March, 2021.
Lower-middle-income and lower-income nations have received much less than 1 million each vaccine dose. This is something that’s indeed worrying the health experts.
Can Companies Join Hands to Speed Up the Process of Vaccine Manufacture?
Yes. Some companies are working together. Pharmaceutical firms that competed with each other have now joined hands. Kenilworth-based Merck has collaborated with its rival, the New Brunswick-based Johnson & Johnson, and manufactures vaccines for the latter. Another example is that GSK of London and Switzerland’s Novartis are busy producing 100 million and 250 million vaccine doses for Germany’s CureVac.
This extent of collaboration is something nobody has seen before. The fill-and-finish deals are signed between Sanofi from Paris, France, and BioNTech from Mainz, Germany, to complete late-stage production of 125 million vaccine doses manufactured by BioNTech and Pfizer from New York City, U.S.A.
Why Aren’t Enough Vaccines Being Produced?
The COVID-19 vaccine has three types – viral vector, whole virus, and mRNA or messenger RNA. By the time March 2021 arrived, 179 million vaccine doses were manufactured, around 43% of the total. In comparison to that, the whole virus constituted about 35% of the total while the viral vector constituted about 22%.
The main issue in manufacturing mRNA vaccines is the lack of supply of components like enzymes, lipids, and nucleotides. Only a handful of companies manufacture these products. Therefore, the global supply has not been up to the mark. Moreover, the companies have been moving at snail’s speed to receive a license for their manufacturing.
In lower-middle-income and lower-income countries like South Africa, campaigns are underway to waive the intellectual property rights of COVID-19 vaccines temporarily. Doing so will enable people in developing countries can get vaccinated. It is high time the world unites to end the pandemic, which is one of the deadliest in modern history.
Until everyone gets a vaccine and the virus does not develop new mutants, we must take all possible precautions. We will have to continue wearing masks, practice social distancing, and avoid going out unless necessary. While the world is opening up after the pandemic, it would make sense to stay indoors if you can to prevent the virus spread.