One of the major challenges for the popularization of the vaccine against Covid-19 by Pfizer-BioNTech is the special storage conditions required to maintain its immunizing properties, different from the standard of the Brazilian Cold Chain.
In addition to the temperature range between 2°C and 8°C required for the moment of vaccination, the Pfizer immunizer has periods of deep freezing and freezing, which requires different conservation equipment for each stage. Last Friday, 14, Brazil closed a new agreement for the purchase of over 100 million doses of the immunizer, totaling 200 million vaccines negotiated between Pfizer and the Brazilian government.
The Pfizer vaccine can last six months at a temperature of -70°C, stored in ultrafreezers. In Brazil, ANVISA also allows it to be stored between -15°C and -25°C for up to two weeks and, when it is subsequently brought to a temperature of 2°C to 8°C, for application in the vaccination room, the permitted storage period is up to five days. These are the valid conditions in our country, but the European Medicines Agency human medicines committee has extended the storage period for the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine against Covid-19 at a temperature of 2°C to 8°C for up to 30 days. If this decision is followed by ANVISA, it will be easier to expand access to this vaccine in Brazil (Source: https://veja.abril.com.br).
“It is very important that health professionals who work with immunizations are aware of the characteristics of the vaccines they administer and are familiar with the rules for their conservation and storage,” explains Roberto Olivares, Commercial Director at Biotecno.
The different storage conditions for this vaccine are provided by ultrafreezers, freezers and Biotecno scientific chambers. Ultrafreezers provide a temperature range of -50°C to -86°C, while freezers operate between -10°C and -35°C. The vaccine application temperature, between 2°C and 8°C, is provided by the scientific chambers. All of these equipments have Biotecno intelligent technology, a combination of advanced resources that work together, many of them automatically, to guarantee all aspects of conservation and eliminate possible risks. One of these equipments was used to keep the first vaccine against coronavirus applied in Brazil and all are registered with the Ministry of Health / ANVISA and certified by the North American FDA.
