Coronavirus Vaccine Latest Update: Even as the Centre has said that everyone will get access to coronavirus vaccine irrespective of location, a professor in CMC Vellore on Wednesday said that the COVID-19 vaccine by Pfizer will be expensive and difficult to deliver in India.
Speaking to a news portal, medical scientist Dr Gagandeep Kang said that Pfizer’s coronavirus vaccine is an mRNA vaccine. Moreover, she said that the Pfizer has not yet decided the cost of the vaccine yet. However, Gagandeep Kang said that for India, the RNA vaccines are going to be very expensive.
Earlier, US-based pharmaceutical major Pfizer and German biotech firm BioNTech said that their vaccine candidate was found to be more than 90 per cent effective in preventing Covid-19 in first interim analysis of data from late-stage Phase 3 trial.
Issuing a statement, Pfizer Chairman and CEO Albert Bourla called the development a great day for science and humanity.
At a time when the pandemic has killed over 1.2 million people worldwide, the announcement by Pfizer and BioNTech raises hope that effective Covid-19 vaccine dose could be on its way, and if approved, before the end of this year itself.
In the statement, the two companies have said that their mRNA-based vaccine candidate, BNT162b2, has demonstrated evidence of efficacy against Covid-19 in participants without prior evidence of SARS-CoV-2 infection. SARS-CoV-2 is the virus responsible for Covid-19.
In one hand, Moderna said the cost of their coronavirus vaccine is going to be US$37 (Rs 2,746) per dose, and on the other hand, Pfizer has not decided the cost of its Covid-19 vaccine.
The Central government has said it is open to a dialogue with the vaccine manufacturer Pfizer so that it can be made available for use in India. However, the CMC Vellore professor said Pfizer’s coronavirus vaccine will be difficult to deliver in every corner of the country.
Why Pfizer coronavirus vaccine will be difficult to deliver in India?
Based on a novel technology, the coronavirus vaccine by Pfizer, needs to be kept at minus 70 degrees Celsius (-94 F) or below so that it can activate the immune system against the virus well.
However, the hospitals in the big cities across the world do not have storage facilities for a vaccine at that ultra-low temperature. And hence, it would be really difficult to deliver Pfizer’s coronavirus vaccine in rural areas of India.
How will it then be delivered?
For its delivery, a detailed plan includes using dry ice to transport frozen vaccine vials by both air and land at their recommended temperatures for up to 10 days. Pfizer said the company was working closely with the US government on how to ship the vaccine from its distribution centers in the United States, Germany and Belgium around the globe.