Japan looking to buy 20,000 ultra-cold freezers for Covid-19 vaccines

By New Straits Times - January 27, 2021 @ 11:41am

JAPAN plans to purchase about 20,000 ultra-cold freezers for its Covid-19 vaccines as it expects to receive its vaccine supplies next month.

Government officials said the deep freezers were for hospital storage and would distribute them to medical facilities nationwide.

Japan hopes to start vaccinations in late February, with medical workers receiving the first doses.

According to a Kyodo News report, the officials said the government will sign contracts with four freezer makers, possibly in early February, at an estimated cost of more than 10 billion yen (US$96.4 million).

Japan is set to obtain 310 million vaccine doses from Pfizer Inc., Moderna Inc. and AstraZeneca Plc.

The doses will be enough for 157 million people. Japan's population is around 126 million.

The vaccine developed by United States pharmaceutical giant Pfizer Inc. and German partner BioNTech SE has to be stored at minus 75 C or lower, while that of US biotech company Moderna Inc. can be shipped and stored over a six-month period if kept in a freezer at minus 20 C.

However, the vaccine developed by Britain's AstraZeneca and the University of Oxford can be stored in normal refrigerators.

Japan's economy ministry and the health ministry have requested that the four manufacturers -- PHC Holdings Corp., Nihon Freezer Co., and EBAC Co., all based in Tokyo, and Kanou Reiki in Kanagawa Prefecture – ramp up their production capacities to meet the huge demand.

The officials said a total of 10,000 freezers made by the four manufacturers will be used to store the Pfizer vaccine, which could be approved for inoculation in Japan in mid-February if everything goes as planned.

Another 10,000 freezers from the three Tokyo companies are expected to store the Moderna vaccine, they said.

The government plans to distribute 1,500 freezers for the Pfizer vaccine to designated vaccination facilities by late February, 3,300 units by late March and the rest by late June.

As for the 10,000 units to store the Moderna vaccine, a concrete delivery schedule has yet to be decided, according to the officials.