{"id":170200,"date":"2021-02-04T03:22:00","date_gmt":"2021-02-04T00:22:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/en.buradabiliyorum.com\/outside-the-box-a-straightforward-explanation-why-more-covid-19-vaccines-cant-be-produced-with-help-from-dozens-of-companies\/"},"modified":"2021-02-04T03:22:00","modified_gmt":"2021-02-04T00:22:00","slug":"outside-the-box-a-straightforward-explanation-why-more-covid-19-vaccines-cant-be-produced-with-help-from-dozens-of-companies","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/outside-the-box-a-straightforward-explanation-why-more-covid-19-vaccines-cant-be-produced-with-help-from-dozens-of-companies\/","title":{"rendered":"#Outside the Box: A straightforward explanation why more COVID-19 vaccines can\u2019t be produced with help from \u2018dozens\u2019 of companies"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"ez-toc-container\" class=\"ez-toc-v2_0_84 counter-hierarchy ez-toc-counter ez-toc-custom ez-toc-container-direction\">\n<p class=\"ez-toc-title\" style=\"cursor:inherit\">Table of Contents<\/p>\n<label for=\"ez-toc-cssicon-toggle-item-6a25b575a9b8e\" class=\"ez-toc-cssicon-toggle-label\"><span class=\"\"><span class=\"eztoc-hide\" style=\"display:none;\">Toggle<\/span><span class=\"ez-toc-icon-toggle-span\"><svg style=\"fill: #dd3333;color:#dd3333\" xmlns=\"http:\/\/www.w3.org\/2000\/svg\" class=\"list-377408\" width=\"20px\" height=\"20px\" viewBox=\"0 0 24 24\" fill=\"none\"><path d=\"M6 6H4v2h2V6zm14 0H8v2h12V6zM4 11h2v2H4v-2zm16 0H8v2h12v-2zM4 16h2v2H4v-2zm16 0H8v2h12v-2z\" fill=\"currentColor\"><\/path><\/svg><svg style=\"fill: #dd3333;color:#dd3333\" class=\"arrow-unsorted-368013\" xmlns=\"http:\/\/www.w3.org\/2000\/svg\" width=\"10px\" height=\"10px\" viewBox=\"0 0 24 24\" version=\"1.2\" baseProfile=\"tiny\"><path d=\"M18.2 9.3l-6.2-6.3-6.2 6.3c-.2.2-.3.4-.3.7s.1.5.3.7c.2.2.4.3.7.3h11c.3 0 .5-.1.7-.3.2-.2.3-.5.3-.7s-.1-.5-.3-.7zM5.8 14.7l6.2 6.3 6.2-6.3c.2-.2.3-.5.3-.7s-.1-.5-.3-.7c-.2-.2-.4-.3-.7-.3h-11c-.3 0-.5.1-.7.3-.2.2-.3.5-.3.7s.1.5.3.7z\"\/><\/svg><\/span><\/span><\/label><input type=\"checkbox\"  id=\"ez-toc-cssicon-toggle-item-6a25b575a9b8e\" checked aria-label=\"Toggle\" \/><nav><ul class='ez-toc-list ez-toc-list-level-1 ' ><li class='ez-toc-page-1 ez-toc-heading-level-2'><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-1\" href=\"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/outside-the-box-a-straightforward-explanation-why-more-covid-19-vaccines-cant-be-produced-with-help-from-dozens-of-companies\/#Manufacturing_the_Pfizer_and_Moderna_vaccines_is_hard_these_are_the_bottlenecks\" >Manufacturing the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines is hard; these are the bottlenecks<\/a><ul class='ez-toc-list-level-4' ><li class='ez-toc-heading-level-4'><ul class='ez-toc-list-level-4' ><li class='ez-toc-heading-level-4'><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-2\" href=\"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/outside-the-box-a-straightforward-explanation-why-more-covid-19-vaccines-cant-be-produced-with-help-from-dozens-of-companies\/#Derek_Lowe\" >Derek Lowe<\/a><\/li><\/ul><\/li><\/ul><\/li><\/ul><\/nav><\/div>\n<p>&#8220;<strong>#Outside the Box: A straightforward explanation why more COVID-19 vaccines can\u2019t be produced with help from \u2018dozens\u2019 of companies<\/strong>&#8221;<\/p>\n<h2 class=\"article__subhead\" itemprop=\"alternativeHeadline\"><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"Manufacturing_the_Pfizer_and_Moderna_vaccines_is_hard_these_are_the_bottlenecks\"><\/span>\n  Manufacturing the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines is hard; these are the bottlenecks<br \/>\n<span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h2>\n<p><\/p>\n<div class=\"column column--full article__content\">\n<div id=\"js-article__body\" class=\"article__body article-wrap at16-col16 barrons-article-wrap\" itemprop=\"articleBody\" data-sbid=\"WP-MKTW-0000152890\">\n<div class=\"barrons-article-ad-wrapper\">\n<div data-track=\"barrons-article-ad-wrap\" class=\"barrons-article-ad sticky_item\">\n<div class=\"barrons-main-article-ad-target sticky_target body_ad\" aria-hidden=\"true\"><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<p>       In the last few days, the question of why more drug companies haven\u2019t been enlisted for vaccine production has come up. It\u2019s mostly due to this tweet:<\/p>\n<div data-layout=\"inline\n                \" data-layout-mobile=\"\" class=\"\n          media-object\n          type-InsetTweet\n            inline\n    scope-web|mobileapps\n  article__inset\n          article__inset--type-InsetTweet\n            article__inset--inline\n  \"><\/p>\n<div class=\"dynamic-inset-container article__inset__dynamic\">\n<style>\n            iframe.twitter-tweet {\n                width: 100% !important;\n            }\n        <\/style>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" lang=\"en\"><p>\n            <a rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/jameshamblin\/status\/1356392817178910721\"><\/a>\n            <\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>        <script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<p>       The problem is, as far as I can see, this is simply wrong. There are not \u201cdozens of other pharma companies\u201d who \u201cstand ready\u201d to produce these mRNA vaccines. To me, this betrays a lack of knowledge about what these vaccines are and how they\u2019re produced. <\/p>\n<div class=\"paywall\">\n       Even though I\u2019m not a pharma manufacturing person, I am indeed a pharma researcher in <a href=\"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/category\/general\/\" data-internallinksmanager029f6b8e52c=\"3\" title=\"General\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">general<\/a>. So I would be glad to fill in this gap, and here\u2019s why it\u2019s not possible to suddenly unleash dozens of companies to crank out the Pfizer<br \/>\n        PFE,<br \/>\n        <bg-quote field=\"percentchange\" format=\"0,000.00%\" channel=\"\/zigman2\/quotes\/202877789\/composite\" class=\"negative\">-0.43%<\/bg-quote><br \/>\n      \/BioNTech and Moderna<br \/>\n        MRNA,<br \/>\n        <bg-quote field=\"percentchange\" format=\"0,000.00%\" channel=\"\/zigman2\/quotes\/205619834\/composite\" class=\"positive\">+4.59%<\/bg-quote><br \/>\n       vaccines.<\/p>\n<p> The first thing to understand is that these are not, of course, traditional vaccines. That\u2019s why they came on so quickly. mRNA as a vaccine <a href=\"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/category\/technology\/\" data-internallinksmanager029f6b8e52c=\"4\" title=\"Technology\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">technology<\/a> has been worked on for some 20 to 25 years now, from what I can see, and (as I never tire of mentioning) we\u2019re very fortunate that it had worked out (and quite recently) several of its outstanding problems just before this pandemic hit. Five years ago we simply could not have gone from sequence to vaccine inside of a year. And I mean that \u201cwe\u201d to mean both \u201cwe the biopharma industry\u201d and \u201cwe the human race\u201d.<\/p>\n<p>At this point, let me briefly dispose of an even less well-founded take that\u2019s been going around as well. I\u2019ve seen a number of people say something like \u201cWe had the vaccine back in February! It only took until the end of the year to roll it out because of the FDA!\u201d <\/p>\n<p>The main thing I\u2019ll say about that idea is that no one who actually works on vaccines, in any capacity, has any time for that statement. Not all vaccine ideas work \u2014 we\u2019re already seeing that with the current coronavirus, and if you\u2019d like to talk to some folks about that, then I suggest you call up GlaxoSmithKline<br \/>\n        GSK,<br \/>\n        <bg-quote field=\"percentchange\" format=\"0,000.00%\" channel=\"\/zigman2\/quotes\/209463850\/composite\" class=\"negative\">-5.77%<\/bg-quote><\/p>\n<p>        GSK,<br \/>\n        <bg-quote field=\"percentchange\" format=\"0,000.00%\" channel=\"\/zigman2\/quotes\/200381158\/delayed\" class=\"negative\">-6.29%<\/bg-quote><br \/>\n       and Sanofi<br \/>\n        SNY,<br \/>\n        <bg-quote field=\"percentchange\" format=\"0,000.00%\" channel=\"\/zigman2\/quotes\/201967021\/composite\" class=\"negative\">-0.85%<\/bg-quote><\/p>\n<p>        SAN,<br \/>\n        <bg-quote field=\"percentchange\" format=\"0,000.00%\" channel=\"\/zigman2\/quotes\/206928357\/delayed\" class=\"negative\">-1.11%<\/bg-quote><br \/>\n       and ask them what h<a href=\"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/category\/download-scripts-themes-apps\/\" data-internallinksmanager029f6b8e52c=\"9\" title=\"Download Scripts &amp; Themes &amp; Apps\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">app<\/a>ened to their initial candidate, and while you\u2019re at it, call up Merck<br \/>\n        MRK,<br \/>\n        <bg-quote field=\"percentchange\" format=\"0,000.00%\" channel=\"\/zigman2\/quotes\/209956077\/composite\" class=\"negative\">-0.58%<\/bg-quote><br \/>\n       and ask them what happened to their two. <\/p>\n<p>Note that I have just named three of the largest, most experienced drug companies on the planet, all of whom have come up short. So no, we did not \u201chave the vaccine\u201d in February.<\/p>\n<p>One of the other reasons we didn\u2019t have it back then is the whole problem of figuring out how to make the stuff, and that brings us back to today\u2019s discussion. How do you make the Moderna and Pfizer\/BioNTech vaccines? And what\u2019s stopping \u201cdozens of other pharma companies\u201d from doing the same? Let\u2019s get into those details, stopping briefly again to imagine asking James Hamblin above to actually start naming \u201cdozens\u201d of pharma companies. Anyone have a good over\/under on how many names would get rattled off?<\/p>\n<p>OK, let\u2019s look at the actual supply chains. The\u00a0<a rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/blog.jonasneubert.com\/2021\/01\/10\/exploring-the-supply-chain-of-the-pfizer-biontech-and-moderna-covid-19-vaccines\/\" class=\"icon none\">single most informative piece<\/a>\u00a0I have seen on this is from Jonas Neubert \u2013 I\u2019ve recommended it before, and this is absolutely the time to recommend it again. I also have to mention\u00a0<a rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonpost.com\/health\/2020\/11\/17\/coronavirus-vaccine-manufacturing\/\" class=\"icon none\">this detailed article<\/a>\u00a0at the\u00a0Washington Post<em>,<\/em>\u00a0which focuses on the Pfizer\/BioNTech vaccine, and\u00a0<a rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/khn.org\/news\/article\/ramping-up-covid-vaccine-production-could-take-months-even-with-bidens-best-tool-to-pressure-companies\/\" class=\"icon none\">this one at KHN<\/a>\u00a0about manufacturing bottlenecks in general. You should also read\u00a0<a rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/rvenkayya\/status\/1356286201309900800?s=20\" class=\"icon none\">this Twitter thread<\/a>\u00a0from Rajeev Venkayya, who knows what he\u2019s talking about when it comes to vaccine manufacturing, too. All of these will cover details that I\u2019m not even going to get to today!<\/p>\n<p>It\u2019s not in my nature, since I\u2019m an early-stage drug research person myself, but I\u2019m going to totally sidestep all the R&amp;D questions behind the various components and just treat this as a manufacturing process that fell from the sky in its final form. <\/p>\n<div id=\"cx-membership-tile\"><\/div>\n<p>To distill a huge amount of background and detail down into the simplified steps, we have:<\/p>\n<p><strong>Step One:<\/strong> Produce the appropriate stretch of DNA, containing the sequence that you need to have transcribed into mRNA. This is generally done in bacterial culture. <\/p>\n<p><strong>Step Two:<\/strong> Produce that mRNA from your DNA template using enzymes in a bioreactor. <\/p>\n<p><strong>Step Three:<\/strong> Produce the lipids that you need for the formulation. Some of these are pretty common (such as cholesterol), but the key ones are very much not (more on this below). <\/p>\n<p><strong>Step Four:<\/strong> Take your mRNA and your lipids and combine these into lipid nanoparticles (LNPs). I have just breezed past the single biggest technological hurdle in the whole process, and below you will learn why it\u2019s such a beast. <\/p>\n<p><strong>Step Five:<\/strong> Combine the LNPs with the other components of the formulation (phosphate buffers, saline, sucrose and such) and fill those into vials. <\/p>\n<p><strong>Step Six:<\/strong> Get those vials into trays, into packages, into boxes, into crates, and out the door into trucks and airplanes <\/p>\n<p>OK, you have now produced the mRNA coronavirus vaccines and shipped them out into the world, so sit back and open a cold one. You will not reach that stage, though, without some significant challenges. Let\u2019s take those step by step. <\/p>\n<p>The DNA production in Step One is not too bad. As the Neubert article details, Pfizer does this in St. Louis, and Moderna outsources this to the large and capable Swiss firm Lonza<br \/>\n        LONN,<br \/>\n        <bg-quote field=\"percentchange\" format=\"0,000.00%\" channel=\"\/zigman2\/quotes\/206849989\/delayed\" class=\"negative\">-0.80%<\/bg-quote><\/p>\n<p>        LZAGY,<br \/>\n        <bg-quote field=\"percentchange\" format=\"0,000.00%\" channel=\"\/zigman2\/quotes\/205537756\/delayed\" class=\"negative\">-0.38%<\/bg-quote><span>.<\/span>\n       <\/p>\n<p>DNA plasmid production on an industrial scale is pretty well worked out (and keep in mind that \u201cindustrial scale\u201d for DNA means \u201ca few grams\u201d. It\u2019s not something you can do in your garage; as with every step in this process there\u2019s a lot of purification and quality control to make sure that you\u2019re making\u00a0<em>exactly<\/em>\u00a0what you think you\u2019re making and that it looks\u00a0<em>exactly<\/em> within the same specs as the last time you made it. But that\u2019s what biopharma manufacturing folks are good at, and there are a lot of people who can do it. <\/p>\n<p>That said, a goodly number of them are occupied doing that for just the vaccines, but if we needed more of this DNA, sure, we could produce more.<\/p>\n<p>But we don\u2019t. That\u2019s not the rate-limiting step. Nor is Step Two, the transcription into mRNA. Pfizer and BioNTech do this in Andover, Mass., and at BioNTech facilities in Germany. It has manufacturing in Idar-Oberstein (a town I recall visiting in the cold rain one weekend in 1988 during my post-doc!) and last fall it bought another facility in Marburg that is just getting revved up for such production now. The Moderna mRNA step is also handled in Switzerland by Lonza. <\/p>\n<p>Now this is not so common as an industrial process, for sure, because it\u2019s only relatively recently that people have been treating RNA species as actual drug substances themselves, worthy of scale-up manufacturing. If I had to ask someone else to make me some more bags of bespoke mRNA, I might turn to Alnylam<br \/>\n        ALNY,<br \/>\n        <bg-quote field=\"percentchange\" format=\"0,000.00%\" channel=\"\/zigman2\/quotes\/205655272\/composite\" class=\"negative\">-1.82%<\/bg-quote><br \/>\n       (which has a manufacturing facility in Norton, Mass., although to be sure, they\u2019re using it for their own drugs), but doing so would not increase the number of vaccine vials coming out the other end of the process. <\/p>\n<p>RNA production is certainly closer to being rate-limiting than Step One, but it\u2019s nothing compared to the real bottlenecks that are coming.<\/p>\n<p>Now to the lipids in Step Three. This doesn\u2019t have to be done in sequence like the DNA\/RNA step, of course \u2014 the lipids needed for the formulation are an entirely different production process. As the Neubert article will show you, Pfizer and BioNTech are getting all of theirs from a U.K. company called Croda<br \/>\n        CRDA,<br \/>\n        <bg-quote field=\"percentchange\" format=\"0,000.00%\" channel=\"\/zigman2\/quotes\/206442951\/delayed\" class=\"negative\">-0.40%<\/bg-quote><span>,<\/span><br \/>\n       with production likely going on in the town of Alabaster, Ala., which (unlike Idar-Oberstein) I am certain that I have\u00a0<em>not<\/em>\u00a0visited. <\/p>\n<p>Now, each of these vaccines needs some odd lipids with positively charged groups on them; that\u2019s a crucial part of the formulation. These are surely not trivial to make on scale, but they\u2019re still small molecules with\u00a0<a rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/blogs.sciencemag.org\/pipeline\/archives\/2021\/01\/11\/rna-vaccines-and-their-lipids\" class=\"icon none\">relatively straightforward<\/a>\u00a0structures. <\/p>\n<p>I\u2019m sure that barrels of these things aren\u2019t stacking up at the factory for lack of demand, but I don\u2019t believe that they\u2019re the limiting reagent in manufacturing, either. If you had to, you could surely get some other manufacturers up to speed on the process.<\/p>\n<p>I\u2019m going to skip ahead to Step Five and Step Six. These are surely running at a good clip, but they are more traditional functions of a drug company (or of any manufacturing company). <\/p>\n<p>It\u2019s true that pharmaceutical vial fill-and-finish on this scale narrows you down to fewer players than would be involved in, say, canning tuna. But these folks are already involved. <\/p>\n<p>Pfizer is doing this in Kalamazoo, Mich., and in Puurs, Belgium, and BioNTech is doing this in several locations in Germany and Switzerland, both at its own facilities and via at least two contract firms. Moderna, meanwhile, outsources this to some of the big players in the U.S. and Europe: Catalent<br \/>\n        CTLT,<br \/>\n        <bg-quote field=\"percentchange\" format=\"0,000.00%\" channel=\"\/zigman2\/quotes\/206700489\/composite\" class=\"negative\">-3.31%<\/bg-quote><span>,<\/span><br \/>\n       Rovi<br \/>\n        ROVI,<br \/>\n        <bg-quote field=\"percentchange\" format=\"0,000.00%\" channel=\"\/zigman2\/quotes\/201694325\/delayed\" class=\"positive\">+0.96%<\/bg-quote><br \/>\n       and Recipharm<br \/>\n        RECI.B,<br \/>\n        <bg-quote field=\"percentchange\" format=\"0,000.00%\" channel=\"\/zigman2\/quotes\/201518713\/delayed\" class=\"positive\">+0.61%<\/bg-quote><span>.<\/span>\n       <\/p>\n<p>Everyone in this part of the manufacturing business has known for months that a Big Vaccine Push has been coming, and has been cranking up vial manufacturing, bringing all available production lines up to speed, and signing deals all over the place with everyone who has any kind of advanced vaccine effort.<\/p>\n<p>Ah, but now we get back to Step Four. As Neubert says, \u201cWelcome to the bottleneck!\u201d Turning a mixture of mRNA and a set of lipids into a well-defined mix of solid nanoparticles with consistent mRNA encapsulation, well, that\u2019s the hard part. <\/p>\n<p>Moderna appears to be doing this step in-house, although details are scarce, and Pfizer\/BioNTech seems to be doing this in Kalamazoo and probably in Europe as well. <\/p>\n<p>Everyone is almost certainly having to use some sort of specially built microfluidics device to get this to happen \u2013 I would be extremely surprised to find that it would be feasible without such technology. <\/p>\n<p>Microfluidics (a hot area of research for some years now) involves liquid flow through very small channels, allowing for precise mixing and timing on a very small scale. Liquids behave quite differently on that scale than they do when you pour them out of drums or pump them into reactors (which is what we\u2019re used to in more traditional drug manufacturing). That\u2019s the whole idea. <\/p>\n<p>My own guess as to what such a Vaccine Machine involves is a large number of very small reaction chambers, running in parallel, that have equally small and very precisely controlled flows of the mRNA and the various lipid components heading into them. You will have to control the flow rates, the concentrations, the temperature and who knows what else, and you can be sure that the channel sizes and the size and shape of the mixing chambers are critical as well.<\/p>\n<p>These will be special-purpose bespoke machines, and if you ask other drug companies if they have one sitting around, the answer will be \u201cOf course not\u201d. <\/p>\n<p>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 \u201cdozens\u201d of other companies and ask them to shift their existing production over to making the mRNA vaccines. <\/p>\n<p>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\u00a0<em>on one hand<\/em>\u00a0the number of facilities who can make the critical lipid nanoparticles. That doesn\u2019t mean that you can\u2019t build more of the machines, but I would assume that Pfizer, BioNTech, Moderna (and CureVac<br \/>\n        CVAC,<br \/>\n        <bg-quote field=\"percentchange\" format=\"0,000.00%\" channel=\"\/zigman2\/quotes\/219999729\/composite\" class=\"positive\">+6.64%<\/bg-quote><br \/>\n       as well) have largely taken up the production capacity for that sort of expansion.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Read:<\/strong> GSK and CureVac join forces to develop vaccines targeting new COVID-19 variants<\/p>\n<p>And let\u2019s not forget: the rest of the drug industry is already mobilizing. Sanofi<br \/>\n        SAN,<br \/>\n        <bg-quote field=\"percentchange\" format=\"0,000.00%\" channel=\"\/zigman2\/quotes\/206928357\/delayed\" class=\"negative\">-1.11%<\/bg-quote><\/p>\n<p>        SNY,<br \/>\n        <bg-quote field=\"percentchange\" format=\"0,000.00%\" channel=\"\/zigman2\/quotes\/201967021\/composite\" class=\"negative\">-0.85%<\/bg-quote><span>,<\/span><br \/>\n       one of the big vaccine players already (and one with their own interest in mRNA) has\u00a0<a rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.fiercepharma.com\/pharma\/sanofi-after-r-d-setback-lends-a-hand-to-vaccine-rival-pfizer-for-coronavirus-shot\" class=\"icon none\">already announced<\/a>\u00a0that it\u2019s going to help out Pfizer and BioNTech. <\/p>\n<p>But look at the timelines: here\u2019s one of the largest, most well-prepared companies that could join in on a vaccine production effort, and it won\u2019t have an impact until August. It\u2019s not clear what stages Sanofi will be involved in, but bottling and packaging are\u00a0<a rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/abcnews.go.com\/Health\/wireStory\/frances-sanofi-make-vaccines-rival-pfizer-biontech-75509202\" class=\"icon none\">definitely involved<\/a>\u00a0(and there are no details about whether LNP production is). <\/p>\n<p>And Novartis<br \/>\n        NVS,<br \/>\n        <bg-quote field=\"percentchange\" format=\"0,000.00%\" channel=\"\/zigman2\/quotes\/203243705\/composite\" class=\"negative\">-0.31%<\/bg-quote><\/p>\n<p>        NOVN,<br \/>\n        <bg-quote field=\"percentchange\" format=\"0,000.00%\" channel=\"\/zigman2\/quotes\/203286410\/delayed\" class=\"negative\">-0.47%<\/bg-quote><br \/>\n      \u00a0<a rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/bioprocessintl.com\/bioprocess-insider\/facilities-capacity\/novartis-offers-swiss-facility-support-for-pfizer-vaccine-manufacture\/\" class=\"icon none\">has announced<\/a>\u00a0a contract to use one of its Swiss location for fill-and-finish as well, with production by midyear. Bayer<br \/>\n        BAYN,<br \/>\n        <bg-quote field=\"percentchange\" format=\"0,000.00%\" channel=\"\/zigman2\/quotes\/206842998\/delayed\" class=\"positive\">+0.51%<\/bg-quote><br \/>\n       is\u00a0<a rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.pmlive.com\/pharma_news\/novartis,_bayer_announce_separate_agreements_to_bolster_covid-19_vaccine_manufacturing_1362454\" class=\"icon none\">pitching in<\/a>\u00a0with CureVac\u2019s candidate.<\/p>\n<p>This is all good <a href=\"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/category\/news\/\" data-internallinksmanager029f6b8e52c=\"2\" title=\"News\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">news<\/a>, but it\u2019s a long way from that tweet that started this whole post off. There are not \u201cdozens of companies who stand ready\u201d to produce vaccines and \u201cend this pandemic\u201d. It\u2019s the same few big players you\u2019ve already heard of, and they\u2019re not sitting around and watching, either. To claim otherwise is a fantasy, and we\u2019re better off with the facts.<\/p>\n<p><em>Derek Lowe has worked for several major pharmaceutical companies since 1989 on drug discovery projects against schizophrenia, Alzheimer\u2019s, diabetes, osteoporosis and other diseases. This was first published by <a rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/stm.sciencemag.org\/\" class=\"icon none\">Science Translation Medicine<\/a> \u2014 \u201c<a rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/blogs.sciencemag.org\/pipeline\/archives\/2021\/02\/02\/myths-of-vaccine-manufacturing\" class=\"icon none\">Myths of Vaccine Manufacturing<\/a>.\u201d Follow him on <a href=\"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/category\/social-mediaa\/\" data-internallinksmanager029f6b8e52c=\"1\" title=\"Social Media\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Twitter<\/a> <a rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/dereklowe\" class=\"icon none\">@Dereklowe<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n<p><strong>Now read:<\/strong> AstraZeneca vaccine may reduce spread by 67% \u2014 and protection remains over 3-month dosage gap <\/p><\/div>\n<\/div><\/div>\n<p><\/p>\n<div class=\"byline article__byline\">\n<p>      <span>By<\/span><\/p>\n<div class=\"author  hasMenu\" data-scrim='{\"type\":\"author\",\"header\":\"Derek Lowe\",\"subhead\":\"The Wall Street Journal\",\"list\":[]}' itemscope itemprop=\"author\" itemtype=\"http:\/\/schema.org\/Person\">\n<h4 itemprop=\"name\"><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"Derek_Lowe\"><\/span>Derek Lowe<span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h4>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<blockquote><p><strong><span style=\"color: #ff6600;\">If you liked the article, do not forget to share it with your friends. Follow us on\u00a0<span style=\"color: #ff0000;\"><a style=\"color: #ff0000;\" href=\"https:\/\/news.google.com\/publications\/CAAqBwgKMLG0nwswvr63Aw\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener noreferrer\">Google News<\/a><\/span>\u00a0too, click on the star and choose us from your favorites.<\/span><\/strong><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<blockquote>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\">For forums sites go to <span style=\"color: #ff9900;\"><a style=\"color: #ff9900;\" href=\"https:\/\/forum.buradabiliyorum.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Forum.BuradaBiliyorum.Com<\/a><\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<blockquote>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><strong>If you want to read more News articles, you can visit our <span style=\"color: #ff9900;\"><a style=\"color: #ff9900;\" href=\"https:\/\/en.buradabiliyorum.com\/news\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">News category.<\/a><\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p><span style=\"color: black;\"><a style=\"color: #ff9900;\" href=\"http:\/\/www.marketwatch.com\/news\/story.asp?guid=%7B21005575-02D4-D4B5-4572-D2553A4840A7%7D&#038;siteid=rss&#038;rss=1\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Source<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>&#8220;#Outside the Box: A straightforward explanation why more COVID-19 vaccines can\u2019t be produced with help from \u2018dozens\u2019 of companies&#8221; Manufacturing the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines is hard; these are the bottlenecks In the last few days, the question of why more drug companies haven\u2019t been enlisted for vaccine production has come up. It\u2019s mostly due&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":170201,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[70897],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-170200","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/170200","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=170200"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/170200\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/170201"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=170200"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=170200"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=170200"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}