A major two-day summit of the world's top pharma and public health sector players has ended with strong agreement that scale-up of vaccine manufacturing is an urgent priority for 2021 and 2022. The summit held on 8-9 March 2021 and accompanying landscape analysis (Vaccinating the world) both highlight the need for increased collaboration and Fill and Finish capacity for vaccines.
The summit concluded that serious bottlenecks continue to challenge the goal of increasing vaccine supply from around 3.5 – 5.5 billion doses to the required 12 billion doses needed in 2021, with the CEO of CEPI (the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Initiatives), Richard Hatchett noting “increasing signs of strain within supply chains”.
The landscape analysis includes a frank picture of the lack of data and capacity available in Fill and Finish vaccine packaging plants: “the available capacity to meet the required vial-capacity for COVID-19 vaccines, and the potential repercussion for the production of other health products is currently largely unknown”.
Ziccum CEO Göran Conradson: “We welcome the new landscape analysis and in particular its acknowledgment of the need for increased capacity and data around Fill and Finish. All of us within the vaccine arena now recognize that pandemic preparedness is on a war footing – and innovation has always been key to winning wars. It is now time to include innovation in all its forms in our fight against pandemics. Our planned air-drying Fill and Finish plants can be a vital part of our arsenal. Pandemics know no borders. Nor should the technology that can defeat them.”
NEW COLLABORATION, ROLES AND REPONSIBILITIES
Whilst the summit stressed the need for increased collaboration amongst vaccine players, Conradson believes that smaller, more innovative players urgently need to be brought into today’s global, long-term programs: “We have always stressed how crucial inclusive collaboration is,” Conradson says. “We call on all stakeholders involved to work together to accept the necessary roles and responsibilities – and to include even small-scale innovators that hold key technologies that can help prepare for pandemics and achieve safe and sustainable vaccine coverage for children everywhere.”
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