The Biden administration and COVID-19 vaccine producers are actively discussing ways to increase manufacturing in the coming months, including partnerships with other pharmaceutical companies to help bottle the vaccine for distribution.
According to two people familiar with these conversations, the Biden team has been talking to several companies about how to intervene to help with filling and finishing – the act of filling vials with the vaccine – part of the vaccine manufacturing process. Several of these companies have emerged as pioneers and an announcement may be made in the next few days, the sources said.
Asked about the manufacturing partnership talks, an individual who works with the Biden COVID-19 team said that “all options are on the table”.
Similar partnerships have already been established in Europe. Last week, Sanofi announced that it had signed an agreement with Pfizer to bottle its vaccine and that 100 million doses would be available across the European Union by the end of the year. Sanofi is trying to develop its own COVID-19 vaccine with GlaxoSmithKline (GSK). In December, companies said the vaccine would be delayed after disappointing results in older patients in clinical trials. “We wondered how we could become useful in the present, to participate in the collective effort to end this crisis as soon as possible,” said Sanofi CEO Paul Hudson. Le Figaro. Politico provided a translation of the interview.
Merck also announced last week that it would stop developing both candidate vaccines COVID-19, citing inadequate immune responses. The company earlier this month announced the acquisition of AmpTec as a way to expand the company’s mRNA capabilities.
Discussions about increased manufacturing in the United States come at a time when the Biden government is working to increase the supply of the vaccine to meet the growing demand for the vaccine. The partnership would ensure that states across the country have the doses they need as soon as the general population becomes eligible for vaccination.
In recent weeks, states have reported shortages of supplies, saying they do not have enough doses to distribute to everyone who has scheduled vaccination appointments. At the same time, however, federal data shows that states have not yet administered all doses allocated and distributed to them. The vaccine tracker at the Disease Control Center (CDC) shows that almost 50 million doses have been distributed, but only 31 million have been administered. American officials told the Daily Beast last week that they believe millions of doses are still missing from the delivery system.
“We believe that some healthcare providers are regularly withholding doses that are intended as first doses and, instead, keep as second dose reserves. We understand why, but it doesn’t have to happen and it shouldn’t happen, ”Andy Slavitt, a senior adviser on Biden’s COVID-19 team, told reporters on Monday.
The Biden government announced last week that it is trying to buy 200 million additional doses of vaccines from Pfizer and Moderna, as a way to ensure that 300 million Americans are vaccinated before the end of the summer. It was unclear how or if these companies took steps to expand manufacturing beyond their current capabilities.
Last week, Johnson and Johnson and Novavax released their COVID-19 data. Novavax reported that data from the Phase 3 trial showed that the vaccine was about 90 percent effective. Johnson and Johnson said their data showed that the vaccine was only 66% effective in protecting against the virus, but 85% effective in preventing serious illnesses. Data from both companies show that vaccines are less effective against the South African variant of COVID-19. Johnson and Johnson plan to send an application for emergency use authorization to the Federal Drug Administration. The approval of this vaccine would help to increase the supply of the vaccine in the coming months.