Date Published: 13/11/2020
ARCHIVED - Spain confident of being ready to store coronavirus vaccines at -70ºC
ARCHIVED ARTICLE
Yesterday the WHO warned that some countries would be unable to handle the Pfizer vaccine, not having adequate facilities for the low temperatures required to safety store it
The initial euphoria surrounding the announcement of the latest progress in the development of a coronavirus vaccine by the pharmaceuticals giant Pfizer has since been tempered somewhat by warnings that not all countries in the world are equipped to store and handle the product, but in Spain there have been numerous reassurances that this potential problem will not affect distribution.
The possible problem with the Pfizer vaccine is that it is one of the two vaccines currently in the third phase of testing which use genetic material from the virus itself, an innovation which is not used in any other vaccine already in use, according to Dr Jarbas Barbosa of the Pan-American Health Organization. Dr Barbosa has been quoted as saying that “no country in the world” is equipped to store it at the required temperature of -70ºC (or -80ºC, according to other reports), and that if they are to use the vaccine they will need to invest heavily in preparing the right conditions.
At the same time, Dr Barbosa reiterated that eight other vaccines are also currently in the third phase of clinical testing and require less extreme storage conditions.
However, the response in Spain has been optimistic. Manuel Villegas, the minister for Health in the regional government of Murcia, assured members of the public on Thursday that the logistics for transporting the vaccine to the Region will be fully in place before the first doses begin to arrive, adding that the Hefame pharmaceuticals group and the IMIB institute are collaborating in order to decide upon the optimum means to achieve this. The IMIB has already offered the regional government the deep freezers in its “bio-bank”, and other research laboratories are being consulted over possible collaborations.
At the same time, it has to be remembered that although the shelf life of the vaccine is six months in ultra-low temperatures it can be stored at between -2 and -8ºC for up to 5 days, a task well within the capacity of hospitals.
Elsewhere in Spain the Basque company Bexen Medical has clarified that it will be able to store up to 30 million doses of the vaccine at its centres in Hernani, Madrid and Santiago de la Compostela, while in Madrid an offer has been made to equip the Hospital Zendal as a main storage facility for vaccine doses arriving in Spain. The Zendal is located right alongside the airport of Barajas, ensuring minimal transport time after arrival in this country.