Vaccine technology

Before the outbreak of the Covid-19 pandemic, no one acknowledged the role vaccines played in our society. Today, a maximum number of countries are polio-free, thanks to the successful rollout of vaccines that eventually curbed the disease from affecting more people. Still, not many were concerned about the vaccine-making process. In a way, coronavirus came to teach us a lesson. Following the fast spread of the virus, the global population realized the importance of vaccine discovery and manufacturing. However, despite their enlightenment, even pharmaceutical companies can’t drag the world out of this bewitched state. They too initially struggled to come up with the right vaccineformula. But digital trends had a big impact.  Vaccine technology, a term that covers the vaccine discovery, manufacturing, and distribution process has given hope to humankind for a better future.

For many years, vaccines have played a vital role in keeping society away of diseases. The discovery of vaccines is the reason why many diseases are kept at the bay. It has a tremendous impact on health at a relatively low cost. The typical vaccine development and production process depend on how the vaccine is created, with the manufacturing process taking anywhere from several days to weeks or months, or sometimes, years for a single batch. In a nutshell, a normal vaccine creation and three-phase trial take anywhere between 10-12 years. However, most vaccines in use today were developed by techniques that were pioneered more than 100 years ago and do not represent the full potential of the field. Therefore, when an infectious and super spreading disease, Covid-19, captivated the human population, the healthcare system and pharmaceutical companies went numb for a while. Even though they were slowly starting to embrace technologyin drug and vaccine production, developing an effective vaccine in weeks felt impossible. But vaccine technology changed the fate of the world. By implementing digital trends in their discovery and manufacturing process, pharmaceutical companies saw light at the end of the tunnel. 

Over the past few months, a considerable number of pharmaceutical companies have come up with effective vaccines. Today, hundreds of millions of vaccine doses have already been administered across 133 countries. Many pharmaceutical companies’ vaccines also complied with and met all the guidelines kept in place by individual nations. Besides, Covax, a global move by WHO to distribute vaccines to medium and low-income countries, was also rolled out. The first wave of vaccines administered in the 92 countries in the Covax program was two to three times larger than UNICEF’s yearly routine vaccine program. All these things would be nearly impossible without vaccine technology. Starting from analyzing data to find the exact ingredient to tracking the vaccine delivery process, digital trends helped at every end of vaccine rollout. 

Challenges in vaccine making and distribution

Truth be told, not all vaccines are completely effective and can be used to immunize people. Despite the unraveling of Covid-19 vaccines by Pfizer, Moderna, Johnson & Johnson, AstraZeneca, etc, there are still other 78 vaccines in various stages of clinical trials. Each of the vaccines is discovered through various research and analysis processes. Besides, mRNA vaccines have never been mass-produced before. 

In addition to the vaccine discovery process, vaccine manufacturing is also very important. However, pharmaceutical companies faced many sidelined issues during vaccine making. For example, unpredicted downtimes can affect hours or even days of manufacturing. Remember the fire accident in Serum Institute of India, Pune, where AstraZeneca vaccines were produced at a large scale? Thankfully, it happened at an under-construction facility and didn’t hinder vaccine production. But if the same happened at the main unit, it could’ve jeopardized vaccine production rollout for days, if not months. Therefore, pharmaceutical companies can’t afford to make even a single mistake during production and should keep an eye on machinery and possible threats. 

India, a country that was called the pharmacy of the world is now facing backlash over its irregularities in vaccine supply. What the vaccine makers show in data totally contradicts actual ground-level delivery. According to reports, there is a difference of 66% between vaccine production and its delivery to people. This is where the supply gap begins. Supply chain maintenance is very vital in critical sectors like healthcare. Starting from raw material manufacturing to vaccine making and delivery, everything should go as planned without disruption.

How is technology helping vaccine production?

Manufacturing enough vaccines is the biggest challenge. Even though technologycan’t help roll out thousands of millions of vaccines in a single day, it can still help run the cycle. Automation and artificial intelligence can help pharmaceutical companies to optimize manufacturing processes. Besides, the companies also use technologyto fast-track the discovery and making. 

Technologycan help end-to-end tracking of vaccine distribution. Artificial intelligence is used to track vaccines from the manufacturing plant through distribution channels until it reaches the inoculation camps or hospitals.