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WURZBURG, Germany: At first glance, they look like normal containers. But the rectangular boxes made by the German company Va-Q-Tec will, in fact, play a key role in keeping life-saving COVID-19 vaccines ultra-fast as they are shipped around the world.
After Britain this week became the first country to approve the Pfizer / BioNTech vaccine for general use, other medical authorities around the world could decide in the coming days or weeks on similar applications from a host of pharmaceutical companies that develop vaccines against coronavirus.
There will be a huge logistical challenge to transport billions of doses at the right temperature around the world, maintaining the so-called “cold chain” from a vaccine manufacturer to a patient’s arm.
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The Pfizer / BioNTech vaccine, for example, should be stored at a freezing temperature of minus 70 degrees Celsius.
Va-Q-Tec’s packaging will serve to keep the vaccines cool enough, company founder and CEO Joachim Kuhn told AFP, describing them as “big thermos flasks.”
At the company’s factory in the Bavarian city of Wurzburg, workers assembled glued panels or fabricated vacuum-packed liners.
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Using silica particle technology, the containers can maintain temperatures ranging from refrigerator-like to polar chills for up to 10 days thanks to the highly insulating material and “without the need for energy input,” Kuhn said, standing in front of the cold store marked minus 70 degrees.
Even at very low temperatures, the need for dry ice is minimal, which could make transporting vaccines easier and cheaper.
LOGISTICS CHALLENGE
Va-Q-Tec said it has an agreement to supply the super-coolers with “a leading international pharmaceutical manufacturer” of a COVID-19 vaccine, but did not name the customer due to confidentiality agreements.
Many more similar announcements could follow, as the firm is involved in 30 to 40 similar projects, Kuhn said.
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Due to the high demand for international shipments loaded with vaccine doses, Va-Q-Tec will build more than 10,000 containers next year, Kuhn said.
The company also plans to make more than 100,000 picnic-size boxes, compared to 25,000 currently in stock.
“Our teams are ready,” while the capabilities of the group’s two factories, the other located in Koelleda in central Germany, will operate 24 hours a day, Kuhn said.
Some 20 airlines and ground transportation companies have turned to Va-Q-Tec in the logistical challenge of the COVID-19 vaccine.
GROWTH INDUSTRY
A particular problem with the distribution of the COVID-19 vaccine is shipments to Africa, Latin America and parts of Southeast Asia, where outside temperatures are high and infrastructure is lacking.
Va-Q-Tec came up with a solution of a lighter container, lined with recyclable cardboard and delivered in pieces to be assembled on site.
The product is the latest invention of the old company, which was launched in 2001 by Kuhn and other students at the University of Wuerzburg and the Bavarian Center for Applied Energy Research to research space-saving insulating materials.
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The company currently has seven locations around the world and employs 500 people, with a turnover of € 65 million (US $ 79 million) in 2019.
Listed on the Frankfurt Stock Exchange in 2016, its capitalization has increased in recent weeks to 500 million euros, still far from the billions of other German biotech firms involved in launching vaccines such as BioNTech and Curevac, which opted for the US Nasdaq Stock Exchange.
The insulated container market, which also features Sweden’s CSafe and Envirotainer, is growing by 10 percent every year and Va-Q-Tec believes it can do better, having achieved a growth rate of 20 to 30 percent in the last 10 years.
In fact, the company’s thermal technology could be used in high-end refrigerators, building insulation, pipe and boiler linings, and even in the automotive and aeronautical industry, “suggesting great opportunities for the company,” according to Guido. Hoymann. , Metzler Bank analyst.
“We won’t have to worry about sitting in a large fleet of unused containers” once the COVID-19 vaccination phase is over, Kuhn said.
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