Pfizer is hoping to double the pace at which it is producing COVID-19 vaccines. The pharmaceutical company said that currently, it takes about 110 days to create a batch of vaccines. The company said that it has made enhancements to the manufacturing process and is increasing the number of lines at the three U.S. plants that make the vaccine.
Pfizer believes that it can cut the time nearly in half and produce new batches in just 60 days.
"We call this 'Project Light Speed,' and it's called that for a reason," Chaz Calitri, Pfizer's vice president for operations for sterile injectables, told USA Today. "Just in the last month, we've doubled output."
Pfizer pointed to the process of making the DNA used in the vaccine. It used to take 16 days, but now they can produce it in nine or ten days.
Pfizer was the first company to have its coronavirus vaccine approved for emergency use authorization by the Food and Drug Administration. As of Saturday (February 6), about 20.6 million doses of the Pfizer vaccine had been administered across the country.
In total, 59.3 million doses of the coronavirus vaccines have been distributed to the states. That number also includes the Moderna vaccine, which is the only other vaccine approved for use in the United States. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, over 32 million Americans have received their first dose, and 9.5 million people are fully vaccinated after receiving the second injection.
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