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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsStrained supply chain for glass vials could delay #coronavirus vaccine
If it not one thing, it is another.
Strained supply chain for glass vials could delay coronavirus vaccine
The market for glass is relatively fixed and prone to shocks.
https://abcnews.go.com/Health/strained-supply-chain-glass-vials-delay-coronavirus-vaccine/story?id=71349287&cid=clicksource_4380645_2_heads_hero_live_headlines_hed
June 21, 2020, 8:20 AM
Vaccine for adults likely to appear long before kids
Even though many potential COVID-19 vaccines require different pharmaceutical ingredients and processes, drugmakers the world over have found themselves racing to acquire a key ingredient without which they can't distribute their live-saving drugs: glass.
With at least 11 novel coronavirus vaccines having advanced to clinical trials, companies and governments are working to avoid a life-threatening bottleneck in the supply chain that could prevent the medicine from finding its way into the glass vials used to give patients shots............................
"It could take up to two years to produce enough vials for U.S. vaccine needs, while some therapeutics will also require vials," Bright said.
Such a delay in vaccine production could have disastrous consequences, as more than 450,000 people already have been lost to COVID-19. What's more, a coronavirus vaccine that requires follow-up shots every few years could further stress medical supplies. ...........................
The urgent demand for vials could not only overwhelm the U.S. market but trigger a global shortage, which is why scientists, manufacturers and government officials are sounding the alarm -- and not just for glass. ........................
Vials are seen in this undated stock image.
Brother Buzz
(36,216 posts)Tubes don't even fit the racks used to analyze samples, may be contaminated anyway.
J. DAVID MCSWAYNE AND RYAN GABRIELSON, PROPUBLICA - 6/18/2020, 1:35 PM
Since May, the Trump administration has paid a fledgling Texas company $7.3 million for test tubes needed in tracking the spread of the coronavirus nationwide. But, instead of the standard vials, Fillakit LLC has supplied plastic tubes made for bottling soda, which state health officials say are unusable.
The state officials say that these preforms, which are designed to be expanded with heat and pressure into 2-liter soda bottles, dont fit the racks used in laboratory analysis of test samples. Even if the bottles were the right size, experts say, the companys process likely contaminated the tubes and could yield false test results. Fillakit employees, some not wearing masks, gathered the miniature soda bottles with snow shovels and dumped them into plastic bins before squirting saline into them, all in the open air, according to former employees and ProPublicas observation of the companys operations.
It wasnt even clean, let alone sterile, said Teresa Green, a retired science teacher who worked at Fillakits makeshift warehouse outside of Houston for two weeks before leaving out of frustration.
The Federal Emergency Management Agency signed its first deal with Fillakit on May 7, just six days after the company was formed by an ex-telemarketer repeatedly accused of fraudulent practices over the past two decades. Fillakit has supplied a total of more than 3 million tubes, which FEMA then approved and sent to all 50 states. If the company fulfills its contractual obligation to provide 4 million tubes, it will receive a total of $10.16 million.
Officials in New York, New Jersey, Texas, and New Mexico confirmed they cant use the Fillakit tubes. Three other states told ProPublica that they received Fillakit supplies and have not distributed them to testing sites. FEMA has asked health officials in several states to find an alternative use for the unfinished soda bottles.
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https://arstechnica.com/science/2020/06/trump-administration-paid-millions-for-test-tubes-got-unusable-mini-soda-bottles/?comments=1
riversedge
(69,727 posts).......The Federal Emergency Management Agency signed its first deal with Fillakit on May 7, just six days after the company was formed by an ex-telemarketer repeatedly accused of fraudulent practices over the past two decades
Brother Buzz
(36,216 posts)The Trump administration awarded a $55 million contract for N95 masks to a company with no experience producing medical supplies and whose parent company filed for bankruptcy protection last year.
The Federal Emergency Management Agency on Tuesday told Insider that the contract was canceled after the company failed to deliver the masks after being granted multiple extensions on the order.
https://www.businessinsider.com/fema-paid-bankrupt-company-no-employees-55-million-n95-masks-2020-4