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The observer asked DGS if specific storage locations are being defined for the vaccines, particularly those from Pfizer, which must be kept at extremely low temperatures, but has received no response. “We are also considering cold chain issues,” the DGS simply stated.
In an interview with Expresso, Nuno Vale, CINTESIS researcher and professor at the Faculty of Medicine of the University of Porto, explained that in Portugal, research centers and pharmaceutical or analysis laboratories have chests that can reach -80ºC, the temperature required for the preservation of the Pfizer / BioNTech vaccine, but this does not happen in hospitals.
The question is how to store them when they reach the “buyer”, in this case the reference hospitals, which intend to buy large quantities of vaccine containers and store them, and which usually have equipment that guarantees temperatures between 2ºC and 8ºC “, indicated the specialist in Pharmacotherapy to Expresso.
But that may not be a problem because, if the vaccine is removed from minus 80 degrees and placed in the refrigerator for a few days, hospitals would only need to order “two days in advance.”
The temperature at which the Pfizer vaccine must be stored is a fundamental factor since it can compromise its good results: according to the clinical study, the temperatures between 70ºC and 80ºC negative at which the vaccines must be are essential to preserve the synthetic material in the production and transportation phase.
Before use, the vaccine should be gradually lowered in temperature. What is already known is that it can last up to five days if stored at temperatures between 2ºC and 8ºC, although Pfizer and BioNTech are trying to understand if they can extend that period up to two weeks.
Be Pfizer / BioNTech vaccine to obtain final approval only the first challenge, of many, will be overcome. The same occurs with the drug developed by the University of Oxford and AstraZeneca, both are mRNA vaccines, that use a new technology, which requires storage and transport rules different from those that already exist in the market.
The main hurdle is that mRNA vaccines have to be stored in extremely cold temperatures when most countries don’t have the infrastructure to do so. According to Reuters, not even the most sophisticated hospitals in the United States have these types of storage locations. In the case of developing States the lack of financial resources to create the necessary logistics makes the problem even more complex than in the rest of the world.
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The warning has already been left by the World Health Organization (WHO) and several medical experts who fear that these could become vaccines only for rich countries and even by dry ice traders who predict that they will not have hands to measure with the increase in orders. .
“There is no health system in the Caribbean, South America, the United States or Europe that is prepared to deal with these vaccines,” said Jarbas Barbosa, deputy director of the Pan American Health Organization, the WHO regional office for Americas. at a press conference last Wednesday. “Needed store them at -70 degrees Celsius. If countries are going to use vaccines, they will have to prepare. The other eight vaccines that are in phase three of the clinical trials can use the mosquito nets that we have today in any country ”, he explained.
According to the BBC, the WHO is developing, together with UNICEF, a mapping of cold storage facilities precisely to store vaccines against Covid-19.
[Nova vacina. Temperatura é um dos maiores desafios]
Despite this, New Scientist wrote Thursday that the Pfizer problem could be solved, as two other teams of Covid vaccine researchers, who also use mRNA technology, appear to have indications that there are ways to keep vaccines stable for three months in conventional refrigerator.
Further, Vaccine storage is something that must also be considered taking into account the characteristics of the different vaccines.. Although the Pfizer / BioNTech vaccine needs to be kept between 70ºC to 80ºC less, the Johnson & Johnson vaccine only needs temperatures between 2ºC and 8ºC, while the Moderna vaccine requires storage at temperatures below 20ºC, being more viable than temperatures required by Pfizer, since a normal freezer can reach these -20ºC.
This week, as the Observer wrote, stories began to be made of how it will be possible to travel a vaccine around the world. The truth is that it will require the use of 8 thousand “jumbo jets”, such as the Boeing 747 and 767 and the Airbus A330assuming each person will need only one dose of the vaccine.
To this problem, now there is that of temperature. The vaccine must be delivered to each country to extremely cold temperatures with the help of dry ice, the solid form of carbon dioxide, and cryogenic coolers, which use liquid nitrogen. Cold Jet, one of the leading companies operating in the global refrigeration market, asked operators to upgrade equipment and optimize dry ice production, at a time when demand is already increasing.
Currently, the existing refrigerated transport infrastructure and the supply chain are not prepared to handle shipments in these low temperatures, ”the company warned in a statement.
After receiving a vaccine, a new problem arises: to circulate it around the world.
Pfizer has been planning distribution chains since March, when it began developing the vaccine. “Ensuring that billions of people around the world have access to our potential vaccine is as important as developing it,” CEO Albert Bourla was quoted as saying by the Wall Street Journal.
there is already thousands of ready-to-ship vaccines from two specific locations: one in Kalamazoo, Michigan, and one in Puurs, Belgium. These facilities, according to The Guardian, are the size of football stadiums and can house 350 large freezers, where vaccines will be stored and then shipped to various corners of the world. In addition to these, there are also two distribution centers, one in Pleasant Prairie, Wisconsin (USA), and another in Karlsruhe, Germany, which have more storage capacity.
Pfizer account produce up to 50 million doses still in 2020 and up to 1.3 billion next year and has already applied for an Emergency Use Authorization from the US drug agency (FDA, Food and Drug Administration) so that the vaccine can be used on a large scale, even though it is in clinical trials. If it has a green light from the FDA, the US drugmaker says it will be able to ship them “very soon after,” a Pfizer official explained to the Wall Street Journal.
