A disappointed public and decision makers want to know: How do we do more of the need for COVID-19 vaccines outside the global provision? Far more. Much more. Right now. – Right now.

The problem: “This is not like adding more water to the soup,” says Baylor College of Medicine vaccine specialist Maria Elena Bottazzi.

COVID-19 vaccines require what they can to do as demand grows to hundreds of millions — and any minor hipping could lead to a pause. Certain of its ingredients were never manufactured before with the necessary number.

And seemingly straightforward claims that new vaccines cannot be developed overnight by other plants. Just this week, French drugmaker Sanofi took the unprecedented step of revealing that it would assist bottle producer Pfizer and German partner BioNTech in the packing of such vaccines. But these doses will not be taken until the autumn, and Sanofi has only room for his own vaccine in a factory in Germany as poor news about global supply is postponed.

“We say, ‘Okay, it’s like shirts of guys, okay? Dr. Paul Offit from the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, a U.S. government vaccination advisor, said. “I’ll just have another place to do it.” “Not so easy.” “Easy.”

VACCINES Various, DIFFERENT RECIPES.

In various countries all the numerous forms of COVID-19 vaccines are used to prepare the body to identify the new coronavirus, much of which spike protein. But various technologies, raw materials, machinery and know-how are required for this.

The two vaccines approved so far in the U.S., from Pfizer and Moderna, are created inside a small ball of fat by placing a piece of genetic code called mRNA, the instructions for the spike protein.

It is possible to create tiny quantities of mRNA in a research laboratory, but “before that, no one produced a billion doses or 100 million or even a million mRNA doses,” said Dr. Drew Weissman of the University of Pennsylvania, who helped pioneer mRNA science.

Scaling up doesn’t just mean the products multiply to suit a larger vat. A chemical reaction between genetic building blocks and enzymes is involved in producing mRNA, and Weissman said the enzymes do not function in greater quantities as effectively.

The AstraZeneca vaccine, already used in Britain and many other nations, and one predicted shortly by Johnson & Johnson, is created from a cold virus that sneaks the gene of the spike protein into the body. It’s a very different method of production: in giant bioreactors, living cells evolve the cold virus, which is removed and purified.

Weissman said, “If the cells get old or tired or start changing, you might get less.” “There’s a lot more variability and you have to check a lot more things.”

An old-fashioned version needs still more measures and more stiffer biosecurity since they are manufactured with killed coronavirus, “inactivated” vaccines such as those made by China’s Sinovac.

Both vaccines have one thing in common: they must be manufactured under stringent rules requiring specially inspected equipment and regular monitoring of each phase, a time-consuming requirement to be secure in the efficacy of each sample.

What is the chain of supply?

Production relies on raw materials that are necessary. Pfizer and Moderna say they have suppliers that are secure.

Even so, a spokeswoman for the U.S. government said logistics consultants collaborate closely with vaccine producers to predict and overcome any bottlenecks that exist.

Stephane Bancel, CEO of Moderna, accepts the problems exist.

With changes going 24/7, if one raw material is absent on any given day, we will not start manufacturing goods and the potential will be lost permanently and we will not make it up,” he told investors recently.”

For some weeks, Pfizer has been briefly delaying delivery in Europe, so it could upgrade its Belgian factory to accommodate more demand.

And the batches fall short occasionally. AstraZeneca told the outraged European Union that it, too, would quickly deliver smaller doses than initially promised. The explanation cited: in some European manufacturing sites, smaller than planned “yields,” or production.

More than in other sectors, “there are things that can go wrong and will go wrong when brewing with biological ingredients,” said Norman Baylor, a former vaccine head of the Food and Drug Administration who called yield variability normal.

How much of it is on the way?

That varies according to region. By the end of March, Moderna and Pfizer are each on target to supply 100 million doses to the U.S. and a further 100 million in the second quarter of the year. Thinking even more forward, President Joe Biden has revealed plans to procure more over the summer, enough to vaccinate 300 million Americans finally.

This week, Pfizer CEO Albert Bourla told a Bloomberg conference that his business will likely end up distributing 120 million doses by the end of March, not by accelerated development, but because health staff are now allowed to squeeze an extra dose from each vial.

Yet getting six doses instead of five involves the use of advanced syringes, and global supply issues occur. The U.S. is shipping kits that contain the special syringes for each Pfizer shipment, a Health and Human Services spokeswoman said.

Pfizer has claimed that the plant upgrade in Belgium is short-term pain for longer-term benefit, as the improvements would help boost worldwide supply this year to 2 billion doses instead of the initially planned 1.3 billion.

Likewise, Moderna recently announced that it will be able to produce 600 million doses of vaccine in 2021, up from 500 million in 2021, and that capability will be extended in hopes of reaching 1 billion.

But maybe the best way to get additional doses is if it is confirmed that other vaccines in the pipeline are working. U.S. evidence on whether the one-dose shot prevents Johnson & Johnson is anticipated shortly, and there is still another firm, Novavax, in final-stage research.

Any Choices

In the U.S. and Europe, the chief vaccine firms lined up “contract manufacturers” for months to help them churn out doses and then endure the final steps of bottling. For starters, Moderna is working with Lonza of Switzerland.

In addition to rich nations, India’s Serum Institute has a deal to produce a billion doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine. It is the main producer of vaccines in the world and is expected to be a primary provider to developed countries.

Yet several homegrown attempts to raise stocks are hobbled. Two Brazilian research institutes intend to manufacture millions of doses of vaccines for AstraZeneca and Sinovac, but mysterious delays in shipments of essential ingredients from China have put them back.

And Bottazzi said that at the same time, the world would continue to manufacture vaccines against influenza, measles, meningitis and other illnesses, which are still at risk even in the middle of a pandemic.

Penn’s Weissman encouraged patience, saying that “I think every month they will make more vaccines than the previous month,” as each vaccine maker gets more experience.