Covid-19 Vaccines in High Demand, Thousands More Workers Needed to Make Them

 Contract-manufacturing companies working to accelerate the global availability of Covid-19 vaccines are struggling with a shortage of their own: There aren't enough workers to meet this year's big production push.

The talent pool is so tight that Emergent BioSolutions Inc., a Covid-19 contractor based in Gaithersburg, Md., for AstraZeneca PLC and Johnson & Johnson, enlisted its CEO and a half-dozen other senior executives to pitch potential hires at a virtual career fair in October. More than 550 people attended.

Not enough of them were swayed. More than two months later, Emergent still has roughly 200 openings for warehouse associates, quality-assurance analysts and even a supply-chain management director. "Hiring and ramping up has become challenging," said Sean Kirk, an Emergent executive vice president, who spoke at the event.

Outsourcing companies such as Emergent make about one-sixth of complex treatments including vaccines, but the scale and abruptness of Covid-19 shots is likely to boost that share much higher, say industry executives and experts. With demand dwarfing supply, Pfizer Inc., Moderna Inc. and others are turning to contract manufacturers for assistance in what is the largest pharmaceutical rollout in modern history.

But those helping drugmakers need more help themselves. More than 5,000 open jobs exist at the world's 10 largest companies that have won Covid-19 outsourcing work, according to a Wall Street Journal analysis of the companies' websites. The firms were ranked by production capacity.

The labor crunch is another potential drag on a global vaccine rollout already facing a supply backlog and requiring near-flawless logistics. Many contract manufacturers are trying to fill roles that often require years of experience in pharmaceutical manufacturing or biotechnology-related degrees. They are also struggling to hire workers willing to work overnight shifts, as production goes round-the-clock. The jobs are likely to be permanent.

"We are truly in unprecedented territory because of the world-wide demand outstripping supply," said Rena Conti, a Boston University business professor who studies biopharmaceutical supply chains.

Many contract manufacturers were already staffing up before the pandemic. Demand has soared for niche production of complex medications treating diseases such as breast cancer or rheumatoid arthritis, taken by a minority of the population. But Covid-19 vaccines have created a massive new product category where the potential market is every person on Earth.

"I'm hard pressed to think of another event where we saw such rapid expansion," said Gil Roth, president of the Pharma & Biopharma Outsourcing Association, which represents contract manufacturers in the U.S. and Europe.

World production of Covid-19 vaccines is expected to reach 6 billion doses in 2021, according to industry tracker PharmSource. Nearly every major pharmaceutical company with a potential vaccine candidate has enlisted contract manufacturers to help meet production targets.

BioNTech SE, which developed with Pfizer one of the vaccines being distributed in the West, has several publicly known deals with contract manufacturers in Europe. Moderna, which developed another vaccine used by Western countries, also has tapped several contractors, including Lonza Group AG, a biopharmaceutical manufacturing giant that produces the vaccine's key ingredient.

Catalent Inc., one of the largest contract manufacturers in the U.S., has leaned into unusual recruiting strategies, including ads on the radio-streaming app, Pandora, targeting people who live near its manufacturing plants. It offers $3,000 sign-on bonuses for its manufacturing associates willing to work overnight shifts at its Madison, Wis., facility.

The company, based in Somerset, N.J., has hundreds of unfilled jobs, which could directly affect how much extra production it can allot to Covid-19 vaccines, said Bernie Clark, Catalent's vice president of marketing and strategy. The company has signed multiple Covid-19 vaccine contracts, including deals to produce compounds for Moderna, AstraZeneca and Johnson & Johnson.

"To keep adding capacity and new lines, you have to have the people to run them," Mr. Clark said.

Lonza, the Swiss contractor, is recruiting dozens of new employees from quality-assurance managers to engineers at one of its facilities in Switzerland, which is expected to turn out 300 million doses over the next year. Sweden's Recipharm AB, another Moderna contractor helping with late-stage production, is hiring about 65 workers for a plant in France, the company said.

Avid Bioservices Inc., of Tustin, Calif., which has contracts to make components for multiple vaccine candidates, expects to recruit about 40 new employees by next summer -- or double a typical year, said Lorna Larson, the company's senior director in human resources. Those workers require six months of training, detailing how Avid handles manufacturing and assists clients. The plan is to keep the new hires long-term, incorporating them into Avid's staff of 234 employees, Ms. Larson said.

"The pandemic has just accelerated the fight for talent," she said. "It really is critical right now -- and there's a lot of competition for it."

https://www.marketscreener.com/quote/stock/EMERGENT-BIOSOLUTIONS-INC-36547/news/Covid-19-Vaccines-Are-in-High-Demand-but-Thousands-More-Workers-Are-Needed-to-Make-Them-32115727/

Inovio partners with Advaccine to commercialize COVID-19 vaccine in China

 Inovio Pharmaceuticals Inc has partnered with Advaccine Biopharmaceuticals Suzhou Co Ltd to manufacture and commercialize its COVID-19 vaccine candidate in China, the companies said on Monday.

Under the agreement, Advaccine will have the exclusive right to develop, manufacture and commercialize Inovio's vaccine candidate, INO-4800, in the country.

https://www.marketscreener.com/quote/stock/INOVIO-PHARMACEUTICALS-I-17937428/news/Inovio-Pharmaceuticals-partners-with-Advaccine-to-commercialize-COVID-19-vaccine-in-China-32116079/

South African variant bigger risk than UK variant - UK's Hancock

 The new variant of the COVID-19 virus identified in South Africa is even more of a risk than the highly infectious UK variant, British Health Secretary Matt Hancock said on Monday, adding that it was a “very significant problem”.

“I’m incredibly worried about the South African variant, and that’s why we took the action that we did to restrict all flights from South Africa,” he told BBC radio.

“This is a very, very significant problem (...) and it’s even more of a problem than the UK new variant.”

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-health-coronavirus-britain-south-afri/south-african-variant-bigger-risk-than-uk-variant-uks-hancock-idUSKBN2990RU

Indonesia vaccinating its working population first, not elderly

 As Indonesia prepares to begin mass inoculations against COVID-19, its plan to prioritise working age adults over the elderly, aiming to reach herd immunity fast and revive the economy, will be closely watched by other countries.

Several countries such as the United States and Britain that have already begun vaccinations are giving priority to elderly people who are more vulnerable to the respiratory disease.

The following are experts’ views on merits and risks of the Indonesian approach, under which working age adults will be vaccinated after frontline health workers and public servants.

WHY 18-59 YEAR-OLDS FIRST?

Indonesia, which plans to begin mass inoculations with a vaccine developed by China’s Sinovac Biotech, says it does not have enough data yet of the vaccine’s efficacy on elderly people, as clinical trials underway in the country involves people aged 18-59.

“We’re not bucking the trend,” said Siti Nadia Tarmizi, a senior health ministry official, adding authorities would await recommendations from the country’s drug regulators to decide on vaccination plans for the elderly.

While Britain and the United States began immunizations with a shot developed by Pfizer Inc and its partner BioNTech that showed it works well in people of all ages, Indonesia has initial access only to the Sinovac vaccine.

The Southeast Asian country has a deal to receive 125.5 million doses of Sinovac’s CoronaVac shot, and a first batch of 3 million doses are already in the country.

Shipments of the Pfizer vaccine to the country are expected to begin from the third quarter, while a vaccine developed by AstraZeneca and Oxford University will start being distributed in the second quarter.

“I don’t think anybody can get too dogmatic about what is the right approach,” said Peter Collignon, professor of infectious diseases at Australian National University, adding that Indonesia’s strategy could slow the spread of the disease, although it may not affect mortality rates.

“Indonesia doing it different to the U.S. and Europe is of value, because it will tell us (whether) you’ll see a more dramatic effect in Indonesia than Europe or U.S. because of the strategy they’re doing, but I don’t think anybody knows the answer.”

Professor Dale Fisher from the Yong Loo Lin School of Medicine at the National University of Singapore said he understood the rationale of Indonesia’s approach.

“Younger working adults are generally more active, more social and travel more so this strategy should decrease community transmission faster than vaccinating older individuals,” he said.

“Of course older people are more at risk of severe disease and death so vaccinating those has an alternative rationale. I see merit in both strategies.”

WILL IT HELP ACHIEVE HERD IMMUNITY QUICKLY?

By vaccinating more socially mobile and economically active groups first, Indonesian government officials hope the government can quickly reach herd immunity.

Budi Gunadi Sadikin, Indonesia’s health minister, said the country needs to vaccinate 181.5 million people, or roughly 67% of its population, to reach herd immunity, and requires almost 427 million doses of vaccines, assuming a double-dose regimen and a 15% wastage rate.

Some experts are skeptical about reaching herd immunity, as more research needs to be done to ascertain whether or not vaccinated people can transmit the virus.

“There could be the risk of people still capable of spreading the disease to the others,” said Hasbullah Thabrany, chief of the Indonesian Health Economic Association.

WILL IT HELP ECONOMIC RECOVERY?

Economists have argued a successful vaccination programme covering around 100 million people will help jumpstart the economy, as they are more likely to resume economic activity such as spending and production.

Faisal Rachman, an economist with Bank Mandiri, said that the 18-59 age group has consumption needs that are higher than other groups.

“They could jack up the economic recovery faster because household consumption contributes more than 50% to Indonesia’s economy,” he said, warning that rising COVID-19 cases in the country could also risk lowering people’s confidence.

The pandemic pushed Indonesia, Southeast Asia’s largest economy, into its first recession in more than two decades last year, with the government estimating a contraction of as much as 2.2%.

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-health-coronavirus-indonesia-explaine/why-indonesia-is-vaccinating-its-working-population-first-not-elderly-idUSKBN2990MX

UK scientists worried vaccines may not work on S.African coronavirus variant

 Scientists are not fully confident that COVID-19 vaccines will work on a new variant of the coronavirus found in South Africa, ITV’s political editor said on Monday, citing an unidentified scientific adviser to the British government.

Both Britain and South Africa have discovered new, more infectious variants in the coronavirus in recent weeks that have driven a surge in cases. British Health Secretary Matt Hancock said on Monday he was now very worried about the strand found in South Africa.

Scientists including BioNTech CEO Ugur Sahin and John Bell, Regius Professor of Medicine at the University of Oxford, have said they are testing the vaccines on the new variants and say they could make any required tweaks in around six weeks.

“According to one of the government’s scientific advisers, the reason for Matt Hancock’s ‘incredible worry’ about the South African COVID-19 variant is that they are not as confident the vaccines will be as effective against it as they are for the UK’s variant,” ITV political editor Robert Peston said.

Public Health England said there was currently no evidence to suggest that vaccines will not be effective against the new strain. The health ministry did not immediately respond to requests for comment on the report.

The world’s richest countries have started vaccinating their populations to safeguard against a virus that has killed 1.8 million people and crushed the global economy.

There are currently 60 vaccine candidates in trials, including those that are already being rolled out from AstraZeneca and Oxford, Pfizer and BioNTech, Moderna, Russia’s Sputnik V and China’s Sinopharm.

That has helped to lift global financial markets, but the discovery of the new variants has raised fresh alarm.

Scientists say the new South African variant has multiple mutations in the important “spike” protein that the virus uses to infect human cells.

It has also been associated with a higher viral load, meaning a higher concentration of virus particles in patients’ bodies, possibly contributing to higher levels of transmission.

Oxford’s Bell, who advises the government’s vaccine task force, said on Sunday he thought vaccines would work on the British variant but said there was a “big question mark” as to whether they would work on the South African variant.

He told Times Radio that the shots could be adapted and “it might take a month or six weeks to get a new vaccine”.

BioNTech’s Sahin told Spiegel in an interview published on Friday that their vaccine, which uses messenger RNA to instruct the human immune system to fight the coronavirus, should be able to cope with the variant first detected in Britain.

“We are testing whether our vaccine can also neutralise this variant and will soon know more,” he said.

Asked about coping with a strong mutation, he said it would be possible to tweak the vaccine as required within six weeks - though it might require additional regulatory approvals.

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-health-coronavirus-britain-south-afri/uk-scientists-worried-vaccines-may-not-work-on-s-african-coronavirus-variant-itv-idUSKBN2990T3

EU in discussions with Pfizer-BioNTech for additional vaccine doses

 The European Commission is in discussions with Pfizer and BioNTech about the possibility of ordering more doses of their COVID-19 vaccine, in addition to the 300 million shots already covered under an existing contract, a spokesman said on Monday.

“The Commission is checking with the companies whether there is a way to add additional doses to those for which we already have a deal,” the spokesman told a news conference.

The spokesman declined to answer a question on whether a German deal for more doses of the same vaccine could clash with possible new orders by the European Union.

The EU is distributing jointly procured vaccines on a pro-rata basis to the 27 member states based on their populations.

The bloc has already ordered 200 million doses of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine and has taken up an option to buy another 100 million under a contract signed with the two companies in November.

The Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine is the only one to be authorised in the EU so far. The EU drugs agency will decide on the approval of the vaccine developed by biotech firm Moderna on January 6.

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-health-coronavirus-eu-pfizer/eu-in-discussions-with-pfizer-biontech-for-additional-vaccine-doses-idUSKBN29916N

UK first to roll out AstraZeneca shots in race to stem COVID surge

 Britain began vaccinating its population with Oxford University and AstraZeneca’s COVID-19 shot on Monday in a world first, racing to give protection to the elderly and vulnerable as a new surge of cases threatened to overwhelm hospitals.

Britain touted a scientific “triumph” that puts it at the vanguard of the West as dialysis patient Brian Pinker, 82, became the first person to get the Oxford/AstraZeneca shot outside of a trial.

As major powers eye the benefits of being first out of the pandemic, Britain is rushing to vaccinate its population faster than the United States and the rest of Europe, though Russia and China have been inoculating their citizens for months.

Just under a month since Britain became the first country in the world to roll out the vaccine developed by Pfizer and Germany’s BioNTech, Pinker, who has kidney disease, received the Oxford/AstraZeneca shot.

“I am so pleased to be getting the COVID vaccine today and really proud that it is one that was invented in Oxford,” Pinker, a retired maintenance manager, said just a few hundred metres from where the vaccine was developed.

Pinker said he was looking forward to celebrating his 48th wedding anniversary with wife Shirley in February.

Britain, grappling with the world’s sixth worst death toll and one of the worst economic hits from the COVID crisis, has seen a resurgence in cases to new daily highs.

That has put renewed urgency on rollout plans. Britain is prioritising getting a first dose of a vaccine to as many people as possible over giving second doses, despite some doctors and scientists expressing concern.

Since the rollout of the Pfizer vaccine started on Dec. 8, Britain has put more than a million COVID-19 vaccines into arms - more than the rest of Europe put together, Health Secretary Matt Hancock said.

“That’s a triumph of British science that we’ve managed to get where we are,” Hancock told Sky. “Right at the start, we saw that the vaccine was the only way out long term.”

Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s government has secured 100 million doses of the Oxford/AstraZeneca vaccine which can be stored at fridge temperatures between two to eight degrees, making it easier to distribute than the Pfizer shot.

Six hospitals in England are administering the first of around 530,000 doses Britain has ready. The programme will be expanded to hundreds of other British sites in coming days, and the government hopes it will deliver tens of millions of doses within months.

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said it had administered 4.2 million first doses of COVID-19 vaccines as of Saturday morning and distributed 13.07 million doses.

But Israel is the world leader: more than a tenth of its population have had a vaccine and Israel is now administering more than 150,000 doses a day.

VACCINE RACE

Britain became the first Western country to approve and roll out a COVID-19 vaccine. Others have taken a longer and more cautious approach, though Russia and China have been inoculating their citizens for months with several different vaccines still undergoing late-stage trials.

China on Dec. 31. approved its first COVID-19 vaccine for general public use, a shot developed by an affiliate of state-backed pharmaceutical giant Sinopharm. The company said it is 79% effective against the virus.

Russia said on Nov. 24 its Sputnik V vaccine was 91.4% effective based on interim late-stage trial results. It started vaccinations in August and has inoculated more than 100,000 people so far.

India approved the Oxford/AstraZeneca vaccine on Sunday for emergency use.

Two new variants of the coronavirus are complicating the COVID-19 response and might force new national restrictions in England.

Scientists are not fully confident that COVID-19 vaccines will work on a variant found in South Africa, ITV political editor Robert Peston said.

Cases have also been fuelled by a highly transmissible UK variant and more than 75,000 people in the United Kingdom have died from COVID within 28 days of a positive test.

Johnson said on Sunday that tougher restrictions were likely, even with millions already living under the strictest tier of rules.

England is divided into four different tiers, depending on the prevalence of the virus, and Hancock said the rules in some parts of the country in Tier 3 were clearly not working.

Asked whether the government was considering imposing a new national lockdown, Hancock said: “We don’t rule anything out.”

Andrew Pollard, the head of the Oxford Vaccine Group, also received the vaccine on Monday.

“We are at the point of being overwhelmed by this disease,” he told BBC TV. “I think it (the vaccine) gives us a bit of hope, but I think we’ve got some tough weeks ahead.”

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-health-coronavirus-britain/uk-first-to-roll-out-astrazeneca-shots-in-race-to-stem-covid-surge-idUSKBN29900K