With COVID-19 creating intense
focus from governments, companies,
and the general public on the
practicalities of vaccine development,
there’s never been more of a
spotlight on clinical sample storage,
vaccine manufacturing, and the
role of biorepositories in vaccine
development.
Additionally, new pressures exerted
by the demand to develop a
COVID-19 vaccine in record time
are fundamentally changing the
industry – accelerating evolutions
and advances that had already
begun and are now evolving at
record pace. Vaccine development
cycles have been cut from 10 years
to 10 months, and the demand for
samples generated by clinical trials
and needing storage has gone from
thousands to hundreds of millions.
Similarly, storage requirements for
mission-critical manufacturing
materials have grown exponentially.
With ultra-low temperature
requirements, developing and
manufacturing a safe, working, and
compliant vaccine creates a raft of
new challenges. This is especially
true when it comes to managing high
volumes of material and data, the
storage of these items in sometimes
extreme temperature environments,
Radha Krishnan at Avantor
International Clinical Trials | February 2021 23
24
and the flexibility to respond to
rapidly changing demand.
|