While the Government has indicated that it is open to dialogue with Pfizer Inc so that its coronavirus vaccine can be made available for use in the country, health experts have pointed out that it will not be an easy affair.
They said that the vaccine candidate which has 90 per cent effectiveness against Covid-19 will be expensive and difficult to deliver in India, particularly in rural areas where deep-freeze storage and transportation networks needed for the vaccine are almost nil.
On Tuesday, Pfizer Inc. and BioNTech SE had shown ‘extraordinarily’ early results from final stage trials, raising much hopes, which were though short-lived, after experts explained that it will need a complex and costly system of deep-freeze airport warehouses, refrigerated vehicles and inoculation points for distribution across India.
After they reach vaccination centers, the shots must be thawed from -70 degrees celsius and injected within five days, if not they go bad, said the experts.
Delhi-based AIIMS Director Dr Randeep Guleria was skeptical on the availability of the Pfizer’s Covid-19 vaccine as he said that the data released by the company is very encouraging but it should be looked very carefully. “Whatever vaccines they are making have potential of giving immunogenicity and protection as far as COVID-19 is concern,” he said.
“The challenge with the vaccines is that, how long the immunity lasts and how much protective value that it gives as far as individuals are concerns,” Dr Guleria added. He said that other challenge with the Pfizer vaccine is that the vaccine should be kept at a very low temperature which is not practical for rural parts of the country and tough to maintain the cold chain.
CMC Vellore scientist Dr Gagandeep Kang echoed similar sentiments. She said Pfizer’s coronavirus vaccine is an mRNA vaccine which is going to be very expensive for India.
“...Currently, we have no system in this country to be able to deliver a minus 70 degree Celsius vaccine,” Gagandeep Kang was quoted as saying by the report.
Senior scholar at Johns Hopkins Center, Amesh Adalja gave similar opinion pointing out that the cold chain is going to be one of the most challenging aspects of the delivery of this coronavirus vaccination.
“This will be a challenge in all settings because hospitals even in big cities do not have storage facilities for a vaccine at that ultra-low temperature,” he added.