The Pandemic is Transforming Global Vaccine Production

Soaring demand for Covid-19 vaccines has resulted in massive changes in vaccine production. Companies have drastically ramped up production and 413 million doses of nine different vaccines had been produced by early March, according to an analysis by predictive science intelligence company Airfinity. Out of that total, 43 percent have been mRNA, 35 percent are whole virus and 22 percent are viral vector. With 119 million doses, Pfizer is the company that has produced the highest quantity of Covid-19 vaccine, ahead of Sinovac with 91 million and AstraZeneca with 83 million.

Airfinity's data shows that an estimated 9.5 billion doses of Covid-19 vaccines will be produced in 2021. Putting that number into perspective, it is nearly twice the volume of the five billion vaccine doses of all types produced across the world before the pandemic struck. Despite the scale of that figure, it is still less than the 11.5 billion doses of Covid-19 vaccine needed to meet global demand this year.