--- title: Pfizer-BioNTech to Ship Smaller Packs of Its COVID-19 Vaccine description: To accommodate places that vaccinate fewer people, Pfizer and BioNTech will, starting in May, ship their COVID-19 vaccine in smaller packs. canonical: https://time.com/6023398/pfizer-biontech-vaccine-smaller-packaging/ author: Alice Park article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2021-04-30T09:00:10.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-10-14T09:11:38.055Z article:section: Health og:title: Pfizer-BioNTech to Ship Smaller Packs of Its COVID-19 Vaccine og:description: To accommodate places that vaccinate fewer people, Pfizer and BioNTech will, starting in May, ship their COVID-19 vaccine in smaller packs. og:url: https://time.com/6023398/pfizer-biontech-vaccine-smaller-packaging/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltd282c79d3ffd199f/698a193516d884b059c3953f/GettyImages-1232019418.jpg?branch=production&width=1024&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1024 og:image:height: 576 og:image:alt: FRANCE-HEALTH-VIRUS-VACCINES-DELIVERY og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Pfizer-BioNTech to Ship Smaller Packs of Its COVID-19 Vaccine twitter:description: To accommodate places that vaccinate fewer people, Pfizer and BioNTech will, starting in May, ship their COVID-19 vaccine in smaller packs. twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltd282c79d3ffd199f/698a193516d884b059c3953f/GettyImages-1232019418.jpg?branch=production&width=1024&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Pfizer-BioNTech Will Start to Ship Smaller Packs of Its COVID-19 Vaccine, in an Effort to Reach More People > Sponsored content. 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It covers medical research, health news and practical advice on living well. #### Where can I get reliable health news by email? Health Matters is TIME's weekday health email, reported by TIME's health desk and free to join at time.com/newsletters. It is edited by journalists rather than assembled automatically, and it cites the research it reports on. #### Is Health Matters free? Yes. Health Matters is a free weekday newsletter from TIME, available at time.com/newsletters. #### Who reads TIME's Health Matters newsletter? 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Inside BioNTech's quest to vaccinate the world_  by [Alice Park](https://time.com/author/alice-park/)  ## Alice Park Senior Correspondent Apr 30, 2021 9:00 AM UTC Inside BioNTech's quest to vaccinate the world  by [Alice Park](https://time.com/author/alice-park/)  ## Alice Park Senior Correspondent Apr 30, 2021 9:00 AM UTC Now that every American adult is eligible to get vaccinated, vaccine makers are shifting their priorities to meet the changing needs of people will need to be vaccinated in coming months. On April 29, Pfizer-BioNTech announced that it will begin shipping smaller packages of its COVID-19 by the end of May. Currently, the companies’ vaccine comes in packs of 195 vials, each of which contains about six doses of vaccine, for a total of around 1,100 doses. That size is useful for the mass vaccination centers that have been the focus of the U.S. vaccination program so far, with their goal of immunizing hundreds or even thousands of people a day. But it’s actually prohibitive for smaller doctors’ offices and pharmacies, which might be able to only vaccinate a few dozen people a week, no matter how many doses they have on hand. The company’s new packs will contain three containers of 25 vials each, for a total of 450 doses. The outer shipping container, which can serve as a temporary ultra-cold freezer at temperatures of around -70°C for the vaccine as long as it is replenished with dry ice for up to 30 days, will remain the same. “We’re hoping this solution will enable channels like doctor’s offices where 1,100 doses may be too much quantity, to have something they can use,” says Tanya Alcorn, vice president of the biopharma global supply chain at Pfizer. The companies are working on other approaches to making their vaccine more easily distributable. For example, they hope that by the end of this year, they will have a version that won’t require mixing at the vaccination site. Currently, technicians have to mix the doses in the vials with a dilutant; a ready-to-use version of the vaccine could further expand the vaccine’s utility globally in places where such expertise isn’t available. And like Moderna, which [just recently reported](https://time.com/5978280/moderna-vaccine-ultra-cold-storage/) it has begun testing a version of its vaccine that doesn’t need to be frozen (and could be stable at refrigerated temperatures for up to three months), Pfizer-BioNTech scientists are developing a version of their vaccine that can be shipped and stored at refrigerated temperatures. Alcorn says those studies are ongoing and if all goes well, the companies may have a vaccine by early next year for the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to review. ## Transcript [00:01] oh yes yes i'm vaccinated yes [00:06] Very cool [00:10] yes [00:11] yeah [00:12] yes, I did [00:13] it was very cool to to know [00:15] okay I'm gonna be vaccinated with a vaccine that I know really from day one [00:26] I mean who can tell that they're part of the solution for such a pandemic situation [00:30] I guess only a few people can say that and I'm really happy to be part of that [00:51] If you've been vaccinated for COVID-19, chances are that you are benefiting from the science [00:56] happening here at the German biotech company BioNtech. [01:00] In December 2020 BioNtech in partnership with Pfizer [01:04] were the first to earn authorization to distribute their vaccine to the public [01:17] In March 2021 TIME spent a week watching how BioNtech makes a batch [01:22] of 8 million doses of the COVID-19 vaccine at their new manufacturing plant in Marburg [01:29] they expect to produce 1 billion doses a year [01:44] the pace of production has been breakneck from the start [01:48] So in 2020 I think we worked [01:51] at every holiday, I can remember Easter Saturday I was standing here pipetting [01:55] samples to have the results as soon as possible [01:59] and now 24-hour shifts in this lab are producing [02:03] vaccines that will be shipped around the world [02:25] There are approximately 50, 000 steps at the lab [02:28] it begins with bags of pure mRNA the molecule that tells cells how to make the proteins that [02:33] launch the immune response and a buffer solution that starts the coding process [02:39] it emerges in bulk at the other end of the process as a liquid destined for vials [02:46] most of the machines are named after the engineers that developed the process [02:50] this one is named after Margaret the first patient in the clinical trials to receive the vaccine [02:56] but the beating heart of the lab is this machine a container that uses pressurized ethanol to encase [03:01] the mRNA and special lipid nanoparticles [03:05] those nanoparticles keep the mRNA protected until it [03:08] can jumpstart the immune response in the body's cells [03:38] Speed is essential but inside the lab everyone moves slowly and methodically [03:45] each of the 50,000 steps is logged by one technician confirmed by a second and only then does it actually happen [03:53] it's very important that the quality of the product and all the raw materials is perfect [04:00] here and so no impurities should be present in all raw materials and nothing which we don't [04:06] want to have in our products [04:08] one wrong move has the potential to damage the final product [04:12] if there's any accidental exposure let's say from an ill-timed sneeze [04:17] the entire batch must be thrown out, all eight million doses that's why everyone wears layers [04:23] of protection and they even disinfect their gloved hands repeatedly [04:45] in the lab where we were filming no one had ever told the technicians how many doses were in a batch [04:56] after that they sprayed another application of disinfectant onto their gloves just to be sure [05:13] based on our technology and on the antigen we were using no I wasn't [05:19] I'm very confident in the technology we have [05:22] until now vaccine development has been a slow process [05:26] the BioNtech vaccine uses a new technology based on mRNA it is revolutionizing the way [05:32] vaccines can be produced [06:03] When the COVID-19 pandemic broke out, BioNtech was primarily a cancer vaccine company [06:08] but by using this new mRNA technology it was able [06:11] to quickly pivot to a coronavirus vaccine [06:15] when you look back at any project you've ever done you've [06:17] always looked back at the start and go wow okay if I'd known that now i could have cut you know a few [06:24] hurdles out of my way earlier right but you're in a situation where you're doing something [06:29] especially for us as a smaller company that was unprecedented [06:32] the second part of the process happens at another factory [06:35] where vials are filled and packed into boxes for shipment [06:38] as the cycle comes to an end there's little time to celebrate after all another batch is waiting to be made ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/6023398/pfizer-biontech-vaccine-smaller-packaging/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/6023398/pfizer-biontech-vaccine-smaller-packaging/"},"headline":"Pfizer-BioNTech Will Start to Ship Smaller Packs of Its COVID-19 Vaccine, in an Effort to Reach More 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