Across the industry, biopharmaceutical companies are working around the clock to meet the demands of COVID-19 vaccine manufacturing. Companies are working to source needed raw materials and other supplies and increasing manufacturing capacity to get COVID-19 vaccine shots in as many arms as possible. Even prior to knowing the efficacy of particular vaccine candidates, companies have proactively been increasing their own manufacturing capabilities as well as partnering with other manufacturers who are sharing available capacity to support production. These partnerships have been key to manufacturing ramp-up following vaccine authorization.
Biopharmaceutical Manufacturing
While the research and development (R&D) of a medicine is under way, a parallel process is undertaken to develop the manufacturing process and build manufacturing capacity – an often-overlooked part of a medicine’s lifecycle. As the R&D process progresses and researchers get closer to a potential successful treatment, companies must make the transition from manufacturing small exploratory batches of experimental medicines used in clinical trials to safely and efficiently manufacturing a medicine in mass quantities for the public, and they must develop the distribution system to get the medicine to patients. This includes:
- Establishing a robust manufacturing supply chain;
- Building the capacity to manufacture sufficient quantities of a medicine for the patients that need it;
- Developing and implementing supply chain management plans focused on quality controls related to every aspect of manufacturing and efforts to ensure continuity in manufacturing; and
- Obtaining the appropriate regulatory approvals for any new facilities needed to manufacture the medicine.
By the numbers: major investments in U.S. advanced manufacturing
Setting up the manufacturing capacity and all the pieces that go with it is a complex and lengthy process. Building a new manufacturing facility, for example, can cost up to $2 billion and take 5 to 10 years before it is operational, including the time and costs related to comply with various regulatory requirements. Expanding existing facilities and transferring a single product to a new manufacturing site isn’t any simpler. It requires process transfer and scale-up, validation, stability protocols and regulatory filings, which can take several years. Investments by biopharmaceutical companies are used to build, expand or upgrade facilities to supply the next generation of cutting-edge therapies in America. As companies have added new manufacturing lines and expanded existing ones to increase production capacity, the number of biopharmaceutical manufacturing plants has grown in recent years, now numbering 1,556 facilities across 48 states and Puerto Rico. Further, nearly 20% of these new facilities are manufacturing active pharmaceutical ingredients (APIs), which are the ingredients that produce a medicine’s intended health effects.
US manufacturing facilities
Over decades, biopharmaceutical manufacturers have carefully built these robust global supply chains to ensure patients in the United States and around the world have ongoing access to medicines. The industry is committed to ensuring a safe, stable and secure supply chain, which requires a significant investment in time and resources and ongoing coordination with the U.S. Food and Drug Administration and other regulatory bodies to help prevent and mitigate potential shortages or other disruptions.
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