oh yes yes i'm vaccinated yes
Very cool
yes
yeah
yes, I did
it was very cool to to know
okay I'm gonna be vaccinated with a vaccine that I know really from day one
I mean who can tell that they're part of the solution for such a pandemic situation
I guess only a few people can say that and I'm really happy to be part of that
If you've been vaccinated for COVID-19, chances are that you are benefiting from the science
happening here at the German biotech company BioNtech.
In December 2020 BioNtech in partnership with Pfizer
were the first to earn authorization to distribute their vaccine to the public
In March 2021 TIME spent a week watching how BioNtech makes a batch
of 8 million doses of the COVID-19 vaccine at their new manufacturing plant in Marburg
they expect to produce 1 billion doses a year
the pace of production has been breakneck from the start
So in 2020 I think we worked
at every holiday, I can remember Easter Saturday I was standing here pipetting
samples to have the results as soon as possible
and now 24-hour shifts in this lab are producing
vaccines that will be shipped around the world
There are approximately 50, 000 steps at the lab
it begins with bags of pure mRNA the molecule that tells cells how to make the proteins that
launch the immune response and a buffer solution that starts the coding process
it emerges in bulk at the other end of the process as a liquid destined for vials
most of the machines are named after the engineers that developed the process
this one is named after Margaret the first patient in the clinical trials to receive the vaccine
but the beating heart of the lab is this machine a container that uses pressurized ethanol to encase
the mRNA and special lipid nanoparticles
those nanoparticles keep the mRNA protected until it
can jumpstart the immune response in the body's cells
Speed is essential but inside the lab everyone moves slowly and methodically
each of the 50,000 steps is logged by one technician confirmed by a second and only then does it actually happen
it's very important that the quality of the product and all the raw materials is perfect
here and so no impurities should be present in all raw materials and nothing which we don't
want to have in our products
one wrong move has the potential to damage the final product
if there's any accidental exposure let's say from an ill-timed sneeze
the entire batch must be thrown out, all eight million doses that's why everyone wears layers
of protection and they even disinfect their gloved hands repeatedly
in the lab where we were filming no one had ever told the technicians how many doses were in a batch
after that they sprayed another application of disinfectant onto their gloves just to be sure
based on our technology and on the antigen we were using no I wasn't
I'm very confident in the technology we have
until now vaccine development has been a slow process
the BioNtech vaccine uses a new technology based on mRNA it is revolutionizing the way
vaccines can be produced
When the COVID-19 pandemic broke out, BioNtech was primarily a cancer vaccine company
but by using this new mRNA technology it was able
to quickly pivot to a coronavirus vaccine
when you look back at any project you've ever done you've
always looked back at the start and go wow okay if I'd known that now i could have cut you know a few
hurdles out of my way earlier right but you're in a situation where you're doing something
especially for us as a smaller company that was unprecedented
the second part of the process happens at another factory
where vials are filled and packed into boxes for shipment
as the cycle comes to an end there's little time to celebrate after all another batch is waiting to be made