Pfizer expects to cut nearly half the time needed to produce a batch of COVID-19 vaccine, from 110 days to an average of 60 days, as it makes the process more efficient and production is increased, the company told USA TODAY.
As the country increases its vaccination programs, the increase may help to alleviate bottlenecks caused by vaccine shortages.
“We call it ‘Project Light Speed’ and it’s called it for a reason,” said Chaz Calitri, vice president of sterile injectable operations at Pfizer, who runs the company’s factory in Kalamazoo, Michigan. “Just last month, we doubled production.”
The increase in speed and capacity is not unexpected, said Robert Van Exan, president of Immunization Policy and Knowledge Translation, a vaccine production consultancy.
“Nobody has ever produced mRNA vaccines on that scale, so you can bet your last dollar that manufacturers are learning as they go along. I bet that every day they are faced with some vaccine challenge and every day they solve it and that goes to their manual, ”he said.
From DNA to doses: COVID-19 vaccine life cycles
Pfizer’s COVID-19 vaccine is produced at three different Pfizer plants: starting in Chesterfield, Missouri, moving to Andover, Massachusetts, and ending in Kalamazoo, Michigan. On Saturday, about 20.6 million doses of the Pfizer vaccine were administered across the country.
Pfizer based its production system on how the vaccine was developed in the laboratory, said Calitri. Typically, engineers would spend years improving efficiency and cost effectiveness. This is not what happened with COVID-19.
“We went straight to commercial production,” said Calitri.
As soon as the vaccine vials started to move off the production line, engineers began to analyze how the process could work faster and better.
“We made a lot of really ingenious improvements,” he added.
Production is getting faster. For example, making the DNA that starts the vaccine process took 16 days; it will soon be nine or 10. Although quality control and testing have accelerated, company officials say that FDA regulations and best manufacturing practices are still being met.
In addition to improving speed, Pfizer is also increasing production, adding more manufacturing lines to all three plants.
As the vaccine effort continues, more efficiencies are expected.
“There will be profound changes in the way we do business,” said Calitri. “We just demonstrated to ourselves that we can go from a phone call in March to have already delivered 50 to 60 million doses.”
Contact Elizabeth Weise at [email protected]
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Pfizer expects to cut production time for the COVID-19 vaccine by almost 50%