Pfizer Covid-19 vaccine in India: what are the challenges ensued

Among all the potential Covid-19 vaccines racing against the ticking time to bring some hope as the world struggles to contain Covid-19, Pfizer edged ahead. In early November, Pfizer and BioNTech’s vaccine against SARS-CoV-2 virus announced its efficacy of 90%. On Wednesday, the United Kingdom became the first nation to approve its use. This has made the Pfizer vaccine the first properly tested as well as the only mRNA vaccine to have crossed all the regulations to get the final approval. 

However, there is one catch to the whole exciting news – the Pfizer Covid-19 vaccine, BNT162b2, requires a temperature of -75C for storage. This is a way colder temperature requirement than any other vaccine candidate for Covid-19. This is a big challenge looming for countries all around the world logistically. 

-75C temperature is fiercely low, capable of cracking tires and freezing car batteries. Keeping in mind this factor as a big challenge in many nations, Pfizer has said of exploring opportunities to roll out its vaccine in India. 

The Safest and most practical way of storing a vaccine is in an ultra-cold freezer but they cost a fortune. This will naturally be one of the roadblocks for vaccine transportation and storage in India, keeping in mind the extremely hot temperatures experienced in the country along with the challenge of distributing it to remote areas. 

Pfizer, in an attempt to solve the temperature problem, is providing vaccines in an insulated box or icebox, which it calls the ‘thermal shipper’. The vaccine is packed in dry ice or solid carbon dioxide in these thermal shippers. But the bigger challenge of distributing the Pfizer vaccine remains big. 

Without a deep freezer, the vaccine can stay in a “sealed shipper” for 10 days. After that, it has to be topped with dry ice every 5 days. After 15 days of this, the vaccine can be kept in the fridge for 5 more days. If it's not used by this period, the vaccine has to be discarded. Even when at a clinic, after opening the shipper, it has to be topped with dry ice every 5 days for a maximum of 15 days. Furthermore, shippers can’t be opened more than two times in a day and not more than a minute. Once the doses are thawed, which takes 5 minutes in the open air, each vial is diluted with saline to make 5 doses. These doses are to be used within 6 hours, else discarded. 

All these limitations make Pfizer a rather challenging candidate to be used freely and successfully in India.