Stirred-Tank Bioreactors And How They Are Used In The Development And Production Of Covid-19 Vaccines

By David Solbach, Scientific Communications Manager Bioprocess at Eppendorf AG

Increasing demands from governmental vaccination programs and pandemic events such as the current COVID-19 outbreak require scientists to work under pressure to shorten the time-to-market of developed vaccines. The current global vaccine market valuation of approximately 50 Billion USD, with 80% of the market on human vaccines. Altogether, a need for new methods to increase speed and yield, and to produce new vaccines in a cost-effective manner in order to remain competitive is a constant concern for scientists. Although the competition on the vaccine market is high, a noteworthy effect of the current COVID-19 crisis is the fact that big vaccine manufacturers are forming and maintaining collaborations with comparably young companies, and former competitors are cooperating with each other in order to speed up vaccine development. And we see a trend towards collaboration in the biotechnology industry in order to accelerate the research, development and large-scale production of new vaccines.