Although companies are steadily increasing the flow of vaccine doses to states, deliveries have seriously lagged behind earlier government projections. The Pfizer-BioNTech team has struck agreements with two other drug giants, Sanofi and Novartis, in Europe for “fill-finish” services, the process of putting vaccine doses into vials and preparing them for shipment. “You can argue that the manufacturing efforts have been largely quite successful.”Growing pains for the lipid nanoparticle technology have intensified as the government has increased orders for mRNA vaccines. Vaccine companies have released minimal information publicly about how they have used their money to support vaccine manufacturing. Research is underway to use lipid nanoparticles for delivery mechanisms in a variety of vaccines and gene therapies, including in cancer immunotherapy.

Source: Washington Post February 18, 2021 22:01 UTC