The Making of a Vaccine
Vaccine manufacturing remains a slow, painstaking process, as Merck’s Gardasil facility shows.
Technological advances may soon streamline vaccine manufacturing, but for now it remains a slow, painstaking process, as Merck’s Gardasil facility shows.
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Minimal human contact is crucial, so when operators must intrude into the closed system, they use arm-length gloves molded into the machines.
(Maggie Steber for Proto)
Then the resulting cell “slurry” is frozen at –60°C...
(Maggie Steber for Proto)
...by filtration and chromatography.
(Maggie Steber for Proto)
A transfer panel monitors progress in numerous vessels.
(Maggie Steber for Proto)
Once processing is completed, the finished single-strain vaccine is placed in a bulk container, stored at 5°C, until it’s mixed with other component strains and packaged for shipment.
(Maggie Steber for Proto)
