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Medicine United States

Pfizer Is Doubling Its Output of Covid-19 Vaccines (usatoday.com) 110

Posted by EditorDavid from the shots-in-the-dark dept.
31.9 million Americans have already received one or both doses of a Covid-19 vaccine — including more than 9.3 million people who have been fully vaccinated.

And now USA Today reports: Pfizer expects to nearly cut in half the amount of time it takes to produce a batch of COVID-19 vaccine from 110 days to an average of 60 as it makes the process more efficient and production is built out, the company told USA TODAY. As the nation revs up its vaccination programs, the increase could help relieve bottlenecks caused by vaccine shortages.

"We call this 'Project Light Speed,' and it's called that for a reason," said Chaz Calitri, Pfizer's vice president for operations for sterile injectables, who runs the company's plant in Kalamazoo, Michigan. "Just in the last month we've doubled output."

The increased speed and capacity is not unexpected, said Robert Van Exan, president of Immunization Policy and Knowledge Translation, a vaccine production consulting firm. "Nobody's ever produced mRNA vaccines at this scale, so you can bet your bottom dollar the manufacturers are learning as they go. I bet you every day they run into some vaccine challenge and every day they solve it, and that goes into their playbook," he said...

As soon as vials of vaccine began coming off the production line, engineers started analyzing how production could work faster and better. "We made a lot of really slick enhancements," he said. Production is getting faster. For example, making the DNA that starts the vaccine process first took 16 days; soon it will take nine or 10. Though quality control and testing has accelerated, company officials say FDA regulations and best manufacturing practices are still being met. Along with improving speed, Pfizer also is increasing output by adding manufacturing lines in all three plants.

As the vaccine effort continues, more efficiencies are expected.
Across America a bout 20.6 million doses of the Pfizer vaccine have already been administered.
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Pfizer Is Doubling Its Output of Covid-19 Vaccines More

Pfizer Is Doubling Its Output of Covid-19 Vaccines

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  • ...Because you know Canada and Mexico aren't going to see a single vial of that product from the Michigan factory.

    • Re:Good one adding the america flag (Score:5, Informative)

      by Synonymous Cowered ( 6159202 ) on Sunday February 07, 2021 @07:06PM (#61038448)

      From a quick search, Canada appears to be getting their Pfizer vaccines from the Belgium plant ( https://www.usatoday.com/story... [usatoday.com] ). Mexico also appears to be getting them from Belgium ( https://www.entrepreneur.com/a... [entrepreneur.com] ).

      • From what I understand the whole world gets its doses from Europe (and Russia, China, India). The USA isn't exporting any dose.

        • To be clear, you mean the whole world except the USA, right? The US appears to get it domestically.

          It's manufactured in 3 stages. For the US, stage 1 is in Chesterfield, Missouri, stage 2 is in Andover, Massachusett, and stage 3 is Portage, Michigan. ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/... [wikipedia.org] ). After that, they ship direct to the point of use sites ( https://www.pfizer.com/product... [pfizer.com] ).

          • Yes, what I meant is that the USA doesn't seem to import or export any vaccine.

            • Pfizer recently fought and won some retroactive change in its vaccine commitments to account for the "extra dose" often extractable from a vial of vaccine, allowing them to ship fewer vials of vaccine and still meet their contractual requirements with the US government.

              My guess is that the entire point of that exercise was to be able to get to the point where they can export doses from the US sooner. Whether than means immediately with existing production or after satisfying existing US contracts I don't k

              • Pfizer recently fought and won some retroactive change in its vaccine commitments to account for the "extra dose" often extractable from a vial of vaccine, allowing them to ship fewer vials of vaccine and still meet their contractual requirements with the US government.

                My guess is that the entire point of that exercise was to be able to get to the point where they can export doses from the US sooner.

                If by "sooner" you mean after everyone in the USA was offered one, then I think that was the plan since the start anyways.

                I'm honestly not sure how much vaccine Pfizer really expected to move out of the US to global regions without sophisticated cold chains anyway. It seems pretty high cost and high risk to some degree to air freight the Pfizer vaccine globally. Maybe major population centers overseas would be candidates, but once you start looking at moving it into rural areas in less developed countries it gets really problematic compared to a refrigeration vaccine, especially a single dose version.

                You understand Canada imports Pfizer vaccines from Belgium instead of Michigan, because of the US export ban, right? And that this plant exports all over the world. They have the super freezer they require. No reason why they couldn't use the same equipment to export out of the USA as well.

            • The US should start exporting the vaccine to Canada if they want the border opened up sooner.

              • I agree, but also don't think they do. Trucks are still crossing the borders still every day.

                Just guessing here, but I don't think the US cares about travel for pleasure to the US right now. They're going to need to get themselves together before worrying about tourism. I don't imagine Canada wants tourists from the US either until the vaccine has been rolled out, and I'm sure the lack of tourism travel is hurting Canadians significantly more.
      • belgium sure as hell aint getting all vaccines from the belgium plant ... i can tell by looking out my window
        theres something missing and no one's really talking about it :
        1) https://www.nytimes.com/live/2... [nytimes.com]
        2) https://metro.co.uk/2021/02/08... [metro.co.uk] (in 20 people ?) - i know how i sound probably considering the current number of conspirationists per 100 sapients but i feel Pfizer has been nothing but elusive, speaking like politicians on the matter as well as seriously overpromising and underdelivering bu
        • Why is everyone always thinking someone is doing evil behind something? They're shipping out to customers, it's first paid gets first delivered, on all these contracts, from every company, in all of the free world. Pfiser isn't a Belgian state run company where they can just demand to get all the products contractually going to other countries.

          I'm pretty sure the Belgian government hasn't even made a 'Belgian' order. All their doses were part of a EU order.

  • Double the Doses (Score:4, Funny)

    by Retired ICS ( 6159680 ) on Sunday February 07, 2021 @06:48PM (#61038414)

    Double the Doses at Half the Cost means Four Times the Profit.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by hey! ( 33014 )

      Well, time *is* money. An investment that pays off faster is worth more.

      • Well, time *is* money. An investment that pays off faster is worth more.

        Well... From Volunteers [wikipedia.org]:

        Chung Mee: Speed is important in business. Time is money.
        Lawrence Bourne III: You said opium was money.
        Chung Mee: Money is Money.
        Lawrence Bourne III: Well then, what is time again?

      • If the profit motive means they keep doubling production, getting more people protected sooner vs the companies that did the government-funding in exchange for no profit deal, yay! More protection is better.

        Anyone who doesn't want anybody to profit can wait around for the other companies that got government money upfront and won't be making a significant profit.

        They do have a lot of expense in distribution and such with the temperatures required, so that will limit profit. They also have investment in equi

        • Good, but... The FDA is foot-dragging on the much less expensive and more temperature stable Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine. Seems corrupt to me.

          • Re:If they deliver twice as much as the funded com (Score:5, Insightful)

            by teg ( 97890 ) on Monday February 08, 2021 @07:47AM (#61039696)

            Good, but... The FDA is foot-dragging on the much less expensive and more temperature stable Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine. Seems corrupt to me.

            The AstraZeneca vaccine seems to provide less benefits in general . Switzerland has declined approval [thelocal.ch], other European countries avoid the use of it for people over 55 and 65 (varies by country), and South Africa has paused the rollout of AstraZeneca [bbc.com] due to disappointing results against a Covid mutation that is now dominant there. The Pfizer vaccine seems to do better [politico.eu].

            While I'll take any vaccine I can get as soon as I can get it, I'm hoping it won't be AstraZeneca.

            • The AstraZeneca vaccine seems to provide less benefits in general . Switzerland has declined approval [thelocal.ch],

              Your link doesn't say that. It says Switzerland wants more data.

              • To be fair, the headline is:

                Insufficient data': Switzerland declines to approve AstraZeneca vaccine

                The first sentence of the article is:
                Switzerland will not approve the AstraZeneca vaccine, saying there is insufficient data to do so

                So yeah it says that. And it says that other thing to.

    • Even more profit than that if it means it gets governments off their back, mainly governments who were oh so slow getting orders in and are now bitching that they haven't been delivered.

    • Re: (Score:3)

      by GuB-42 ( 2483988 )

      That's well deserved profit.

      If you can end the pandemic sooner, by producing doses twice as fast for half the price, you can keep the other half. I don't know, to invite every employee to a nice restaurant that would have closed down if it wasn't for the vaccines. Or pay for the CEO's yacht, or dividends to the shareholders, I don't care, they all deserve it in some way.

      Anyways, I don't think it will be 4 times the money, there is a limited number of people to vaccinate, and if one critical process is done

      • there is a limited number of people to vaccinate

        Assuming you don't need a booster every X months, and the virus doesn't mutate enough to require another shot... yes. But those are both bad assumptions.

        • Assuming I understood him correctly, a few days ago Dr. John Campbell stated that half of all the single mutations that can occur on COVID have already happened. That implies that the assumption that COVID will not mutate enough to make all current vaccines ineffective is a fairly good estimate.
          • You may have understood him correctly, but he is not qualified to to make that call if he did. It's just not correct.

        • There is little evidence so far that the immunity will last more than 6 months similar to a flu vaccine.

      • fuck them; the employees actually responsible for this deserve a huge reward; but instead they will be lucky to get a Christmas bonus and later they are laid off before their retirement with that old line "what have you done for us lately?"

    • Double the Doses at Half the Cost means Four Times the Profit.

      And that's a problem why, exactly?

      Seems like a win-win situation to me.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by kubajz ( 964091 )
      Careful here. Selling price, say, 30. Original cost: 10. Original profit: 30 - 10 = 20. New cost: 5, new profit: volume 2 x ( 30 - 5 ) = 50. Result: profit increases 2.5 times.

  • Project Light Speed (Score:4, Funny)

    by Synonymous Cowered ( 6159202 ) on Sunday February 07, 2021 @06:52PM (#61038428)

    No, no, no, light speed is to slow! We're gonna have to go right to....Project Ludicrous Speed!

    • No, no, no, light speed is to slow! We're gonna have to go right to....Project Ludicrous Speed!

      We had Ludricrous Speed, but then we had an election ... :-)

      And since they're obviously trying to play off "Operation Warp Speed", I'll also note for the sci-fi geniuses at Pfizer, that "light speed" is slower than "warp speed" ...

      • Not exactly. Warp speed is a range of speeds. Warp 1 is light speed. You can go at warp speeds of less than 1 too. But indeed, anything over warp 1 (which is almost every time they use warp speed) is faster than light speed.

  • Manufacturing process article (Score:5, Interesting)

    by dsgrntlxmply ( 610492 ) on Sunday February 07, 2021 @07:27PM (#61038504)
    More interesting is the glimpse into Pfizer vaccine production in this USA Today article linked from the topic article: How a COVID vaccine is made... [usatoday.com]

  • Good. (Score:5, Insightful)

    by Rei ( 128717 ) on Sunday February 07, 2021 @07:33PM (#61038516) Homepage

    Now instead of rather giving it all to the US, could they actually give us (Iceland) what they promised when they signed a deal with us for deliveries, only to reneg on it and tell us we'd only be getting a small fraction thereof just days after they signed the agreement?

    The US - despite its disorganization - is approaching 10% having gotten at least one shot. We're at 2%. We get a batch up use it almost instantly, then sit around waiting for more.

    I guess that's what the negotiating leverage of a big country gets you...

    • Re:Good. (Score:4, Insightful)

      by hdyoung ( 5182939 ) on Sunday February 07, 2021 @08:39PM (#61038724)
      8 months ago I knew the powerful countries were going to get vaccines first. Anything that countries like Iceland are getting is a fig leaf to maintain an illusion of equitable distribution. Simply put, size, power and wealth matter. Not saying its right or justified, just stating the cold hard fact. And yes sometimes the underdog wins. Just not all that often.

      • Re: (Score:3)

        by jeti ( 105266 )
        Unless you utterly mess up your contracts and don't put in fixed delivery dates, like the EU did. As of now, only 2.64% of the population in Germany has gotten at least one dose. Almost nobody has gotten the second dose yet.
        • With a new product like this and given the circumstances, I cant believe that any vaccine company on the planet would commit to ‘“x number of doses by y date” on a contract. It will all be “this is our goal but it will be whatever we can manage”. Probably along with incentives for meeting said goals.
          • They didn't, but others did stipulate in their contracts that they would get in the queue based on when they paid. I'd be kind of surprised if the US didn't try to get that in their contract for first delivery on worldwide production capacity, and not just US production capacity.

            Then again, maybe they did for all I know.

    • Re: Good. (Score:5, Insightful)

      by Actually, I do RTFA ( 1058596 ) on Sunday February 07, 2021 @10:03PM (#61038872)
      Iceland seems to have a government that is taking care of its population during the pandemic and a population willing to wear masks. The US does not. It is self inflicted (nationally) but we need to get the immunized population to herd immunity before the assholes kill us all for their freedoms. Sorry, I wish we were together enough to share. We will in a bit, the advantage is only half our population will tak eit so we will have a lot to share soon.

      • You seem to be repeating a meme about masks in USA. Here around Chicago everyone is wearing mask but the virus keeps spreading like wildfire. Perhaps random cloth masks aren't all that good...

    • Israel pays 2x as much (30 USD) per dose and on top of that, they hand over data. What data isn't know (to me nor to the reporters who's work I've seen), but it was implied that the EU countries couldn't hand over that kind of information. BTW, in the Netherlands they've purchased special needles, now they get 7 doses out of one vial. Instead of the 6 the Belgians managed to get, instead of the 5 official that are counted per bottle.

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by teg ( 97890 )

        Israel pays 2x as much (30 USD) per dose and on top of that, they hand over data. What data isn't know (to me nor to the reporters who's work I've seen), but it was implied that the EU countries couldn't hand over that kind of information. BTW, in the Netherlands they've purchased special needles, now they get 7 doses out of one vial. Instead of the 6 the Belgians managed to get, instead of the 5 official that are counted per bottle.

        30 USD is not that big a deal - compared to the costs for society of the current situation, that's peanuts. If we could get vaccines for everyone delivered within a month for that price here in Norway, I'm sure we'd take that offer.

        • Indeed, the money isn't the big deal. From what I can tell, most countries don't manage the execution of the vaccination plan (if there is one) very well either, Israel is really good at that too. In Switzerland, they barely managed 350.000 people in over one month, in Israel they manage 100.000 people per day...

          • Re: (Score:2)

            by teg ( 97890 )

            Indeed, the money isn't the big deal. From what I can tell, most countries don't manage the execution of the vaccination plan (if there is one) very well either, Israel is really good at that too. In Switzerland, they barely managed 350.000 people in over one month, in Israel they manage 100.000 people per day...

            The limiting factor for most countries at this stage is availability of vaccines. Strategies with the limited number of vaccines vary - e.g. UK tries just one shot in order to vaccinate more [politico.eu], some (most?) countries use them as they arrive but focus on giving double shots as recommended, while yet others (e.g. Norway) makes sure to set aside two doses whenever someone is vaccinated in order to avoid complications if the stream of vaccines runs into issues.

    • You can have our vaccine but you've got to take our Anti-maskers with it :).

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by kbahey ( 102895 )

      Now instead of rather giving it all to the US, could they actually give us (Iceland) what they promised when they signed a deal with us for deliveries, only to reneg on it and tell us we'd only be getting a small fraction thereof just days after they signed the agreement?

      The US - despite its disorganization - is approaching 10% having gotten at least one shot. We're at 2%. We get a batch up use it almost instantly, then sit around waiting for more.

      I guess that's what the negotiating leverage of a big countr

    • Apparently Pfeizer has factories in the EU, US and UK for delivery to the relevant governments. It's a lot easier to build locally. The US and UK are doing well. So Iceland should be asking what is going wrong at the German plants.

    • We're working on it. The plant is about 15km away from my home. Be patient. Vaccines are hard.
    • Might you have a link to this news for me?
  • To those commenting on the US hoarding internally manufactured vaccine, I have a few comments:

    - It's possible that the US manufacturers thought that they would have produced more vaccine than they actually have to date. Thus the need to use it all internally in the USA until production is ramped up.
    - The USA has the most deaths of ANY country in the world! (Let's NOT go into the blame game of why that is...)
    - Perhaps because the death rate reached 1 out of a 1000 here in the USA, external shipments were delayed because the destination has far fewer deaths.
    - Unlike most countries of this planet, the USA has a large population. Yes, their are a few countries with higher populations, India and China come to mind. But, China "claims" to have MUCH FEWER deaths and infections than the USA, as well as claiming to produce their own vaccine.
    - The USA has wide distribution of the population, and large land mass to cover. Yes, their are some countries with larger land to cover, like Canada to the north. But, Canada has about 1/10 the population of the USA, plus, less infections and deaths.

    I truly believe that whence the US manufacturers get production ramped up, and more of the population in the US vaccinated, export WILL occur. With global economies now the normal, we need to vaccinate the world.

    It is hard not to feel bad for those countries that end up at the end of the vaccine line. However, it would not do vaccine manufacturing any good if the USA experienced 1 out of 100 deaths. My personal guess is that we may hit 1 out of 250 deaths before this is all over... that would be 1.3 million. About double the other 2 main causes of death in the USA, cancer and heart disease.

    • Re: (Score:1)

      by Kartu ( 1490911 )

      My issue with the "where was is manufactured" approach is that I do not think it works both ways.

      E.g if Moderna/Pfizer-Biontech had 90% capacity in Europe, I do not think US would be satisfied with 90% of vaccine production being delivered to EU.

      The same applies to Astrazenica vaccine, which, frankly, given how inferior it is compared to mRNA based vaccines, I would not care much, but again, had most of the stuff been produced in EU, I doubt Brits would go with "oh, Astrazenika's UK production capacity is i

      • It does work both ways if the contract stipulates it. These are not state run companies. The US paid before it was a known working vaccine, and wants their contract honored first, as they paid first. After that contract is met, that production capacity will go to the next party still waiting. Hopefully Canada is still not waiting by then, but probably will at this rate.

        I don't know anything about the UK's contract, they might be out of luck in such an event, they might not. Hopefully for them in that

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