In the pharmaceutical industry, fill and finish (also referred to as fill finish, fill-finish or fill/finish) is the process of filling vials with vaccine, biological and pharmaceutical Drug Substances (DS) and finishing the process of packaging the medicine for distribution. Many vaccine manufacturers use third parties to fill and finish their vaccines.[1]

The fill/finish process is a common bottleneck in the manufacturing and deployment of vaccines.[1][2][3][4]

To address this problem, in 2013 the U.S. federal government created the Fill Finish Manufacturing Network, a network of third-party provider contracts intended to perform fill and finish operations for vaccines against future infectious diseases.[5][6] As part of its response to the COVID-19 pandemic, the UK government has provided financial support for fill and finish operations.[7]

References

  1. ^ a b "Fill / finish". www.vaccinedevelopment.org.uk. 26 July 2020.
  2. ^ "Vaccine Taskforce Aims" (PDF). assets.publishing.service.gov.uk. 6 April 2020. Retrieved 2020-07-26.
  3. ^ Pagliusi, Sonia; Jarrett, Stephen; Hayman, Benoit; Kreysa, Ulrike; Prasad, Sai D.; Reers, Martin; Hong Thai, Pham; Wu, Ke; Zhang, Youn Tao; Baek, Yeong Ok; Kumar, Anand (July 2020). "Emerging manufacturers engagements in the COVID −19 vaccine research, development and supply". Vaccine. 38 (34): 5418–5423. doi:10.1016/j.vaccine.2020.06.022. PMC 7287474. PMID 32600908.
  4. ^ Miller, Joe; Kuchler, Hannah (2020-04-28). "Drugmakers race to scale up vaccine capacity". www.ft.com. Retrieved 2020-07-26.
  5. ^ "HHS boosts national capacity to produce pandemic flu vaccine: New fill and finish manufacturing network strengthens pandemic readiness". www.phe.gov. Retrieved 2020-07-26.
  6. ^ "Fill Finish Manufacturing Network". www.medicalcountermeasures.gov. Retrieved 2020-07-26.
  7. ^ "Millions could be vaccinated against COVID-19 as UK secures strong portfolio of promising vaccines". GOV.UK. 20 July 2020. Retrieved 2020-07-26.


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