Freezer manufacturers in Japan beef up production for COVID-19 vaccine rollout

Record ID: 1598820

  • Title: Freezer manufacturers in Japan beef up production for COVID-19 vaccine rollout
  • Date: 1st February 2021
  • Summary: Myanmar's army chief, Senior General Min Aung Hlaing, attended the military junta's handover of power to the first civilian government under the control of Aung San Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy (NLD) party on March 30, 2016. Outgoing president Thein Sein and former president Htin Kyaw as well as previous government members attended the ceremony. NAYPYITAW, MYANM
  • Embargoed: 15th February 2021 05:10
  • Keywords: COVID-19 vaccine Japan COVID-19 vaccine Moderna vaccine Pfizer vaccine cold chain vaccine vaccine distribution
  • Location: TOKYO, NIIGATA PREFECTURE, AND GUNNMA PREFECTURE, JAPAN
  • City: TOKYO, NIIGATA PREFECTURE, AND GUNNMA PREFECTURE, JAPAN
  • Country: Japan
  • Topics: Asia / Pacific,Health/Medicine
  • Reuters ID: LVA007DXT8MDJ
  • Aspect Ratio: 16:9
  • Story Text:As the Japanese government readied plans to roll out COVID-19 vaccines to inoculate medical workers from the end of February, manufacturers for freezers are beefing up its production line to store and transport the vaccines.
    PHC Holdings Corporation, a medical equipment manufacturer that makes freezers which can store vaccines at as low as minus 85 degrees Celsius, have started operating 24 hours at its factory in Gunma Prefecture to double its output.
    Since April of last year, the firm has been receiving orders from pharmaceutical companies that have been developing vaccines to store their samples. PHC said their freezers can store Pfizer's vaccine which has to be kept at minus 75 degrees Celsius.
    "We feel very honoured that our company's product is needed to deliver vaccines to people around the world. We are also determined to fulfil our responsibility to supply our products in order to contain the novel coronavirus," said PHC's public relations representative, Chisato Hirata.
    Home electronics maker Twinbird Corporation in Niigata Prefecture also boosted their production of ultra-cold freezers. The firm's portable freezers can preserve and transport vaccines at as low as minus 40 degrees Celsius, which can accommodate Moderna vaccines that require long-term storage at minus 20 degrees Celsius.
    Twinbird doubled the number of workers and ramped up monthly production to 4,000 -- a ten-fold increase from last year, after receiving orders from Takeda Pharmaceutical Company in January.
    Japan plans to begin its inoculation push in late February, with the Pfizer vaccine for front-line medical workers. The country trails most major economies in starting inoculations due its dependence on overseas makers and a requirement that the vaccines go through domestic trials.
    (Production: Rikako Maruyama, Akiko Okamoto)
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