Ask HN: Can any egg-based vaccine factory be converted to fit any vaccine? - tpmx
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tpmx
I.e.: With all of these 100+ vaccine efforts that are going on around the
globe - if we find one that works really well, without any severe side
effects, can we then use all vaccine factories globally to mass-produce this
vaccine?

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lbeltrame
Actually, I hope more than one succeeds. This will make meeting demand easier.

About converting, I'm not sure. Some procedures, like Moderna's or Inovio's,
will likely need totally different manufacturing processes. I don't know about
Oxford's (which uses an adeno-associated virus).

It looks like a non-trivial effort to do.

Rather than converting, most of the companies involved are ramping up
manufacturing at-risk during the trials and some, like Vaccitech / Jenner
Institute, are actively seeking partnerships to increase manufacturing
capacity already.

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tpmx
I got this reply on reddit (on a specific question on scaling up the
manufacturing of the Oxford vaccine):

Oxford is making an "adenovirus vector vaccine" Effectively they are using a
adenovirus with some DNA inside it that will make the spike protein of the
coronavirus which the immune system will then attack. No eggs involved.

The egg-based vaccines we have work by taking a human virus, letting it evolve
in chicken embryos until it is more adapted to chickens and poorly adapted to
humans, and then using that weakened virus as the starting point to make a
vaccine.

Interesting overview of covid-vaccines here

[https://blogs.sciencemag.org/pipeline/archives/2020/04/23/a-...](https://blogs.sciencemag.org/pipeline/archives/2020/04/23/a-close-
look-at-the-frontrunning-coronavirus-vaccines-as-of-april-23)

...

But I guess my question remains: Can we scale up the manufacturing, packaging
and distribution using existing (private) infra, or do we need do build this
stuff from scratch?

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lbeltrame
Totally from scratch probably not, but it will likely require adjustments to
the infrastructure (some very significant). That's why all the players are
going at-risk and starting this process now.

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tpmx
Do you feel this effort is progressing at a scale where we can have something
for 60% of the global population (now 7.8B) within a year? (Edit: Yeah, now
that I review this, I realize it's impossible for you to answer. I wish there
would be more transparancy in in things like these.)

~~~
lbeltrame
Most of the manufacturers don't disclose their projected capacity, as far as
I've looked. We're likely getting tens or at best (truly best estimate)
hundreds of millions of doses with full capacity.

That's why I'm hoping for multiple vaccines to succeed. Like that there will
be a faster distribution to the population.

Whether we'll get there or not, we'll have to see. The immune system can act
worse than the most spoiled of children.

