The global vaccination campaign against COVID-19 is steadily progressing. In October 2021, more than 20 million people worldwide received a vaccination. The need or vaccination serums is accordingly high. To serve this demand even better in the future, the vaccine manufacturer BioNTech has expanded its strategic partnership with the German pharmaceutical and chemical company Merck. Merck is one of the leading manufacturers of lipids, which are urgently needed for the vaccine production. Product safety, trouble-free operation, and the resulting reliable and quick delivery of the important vaccine components are of key importance. To ensure this, Merck relies on a long-standing and reliable cooperation with EagleBurgmann and trusts in their gas-lubricated agitator seals from the AGSZ series.
mRNA vaccines – there’s no way around lipids
BioNTech/Pfizer’s Comirnaty® (BNT162b2) was the first vaccine to receive global approval as a protective vaccination against COVID-19 . It is a so-called mRNA vaccine (mRNA = messenger ribonucleic acid). The vaccination serum transports the mRNA into the body. It acts as a blueprint of a special characteristic of the SARS-CoV-2- Virus (spike protein) and provides the cell machinery with the information it needs to produce the corresponding antigen. As a consequence, the immune system triggers an immune response.
But the vaccine consists of more than just its active ingredient. It is also made up of numerous excipients essential for the serum’s effectiveness. Among these, lipids are especially important. The mRNA molecule is rather instable – it has to be shielded in a protective shell so that it does not become ineffective before arriving in the body cells. This shell is made up of lipids.
Lipid production at Merck
As a strategic partner of BioNTech, Merck is heavily involved in numerous process steps of the vaccine production. For example, they develop and produce the lipids urgently needed for production of the mRNA vaccines. BioNTech/Pfizer for instance uses four different lipids in its vaccine.
As one of only a few companies worldwide, Merck is able to produce the lipids in the required quantities while meeting the quality standards for mRNA vaccines. In the first quarter of 2021, Merck announced that they would expand the strategic partnership with BioNTech and increase their lipid production capacities in several locations around the world until the end of the year. This will significantly speed up the supply of lipids and increase their available quantities to keep up with the currently high demand.