Here's an article about the manufacturing process and its challenges:
https://www.economist.com/science-and-technology/2021/02/06/...
The Economist isn't a technical publication but it is known to do its homework and get details like this right.
The Economist isn't a technical publication but it is known to do its homework and get details like this right.
Supplies of raw materials such as nucleotides are also tight. According to Dr Zarur, Thermo Fisher, an American chemical-supplies company, has spent $200m on a new facility in Lithuania to make these molecules, though the firm itself would not confirm this.
I would not have expected this, but it definitely explains a whole lot of otherwise-cryptic claims being made in the WTO debate. I guess it does sort of make sense. The worldwide demand for pure bulk nucleotides probably shot up hundreds or thousands-fold as a result of COVID-19 vax manufacturing.