VISHNU KUMAR1*, VIJAY SRINIVASAN2, SOUNDAR KUMARA1
*Corresponding author
1. Department of Industrial and Manufacturing Engineering, The Pennsylvania State University, Pennsylvania, USA
2. Engineering Laboratory, National Institute of Standards and Technology, Maryland, USA

Abstract

It was recognized, quite early, by the healthcare experts that traditional vaccine manufacturing techniques were unable to meet the rapidly growing COVID-19 vaccine demand. This prompted the biopharmaceutical firms to adopt “smart” vaccines products developed and manufactured using the novel nucleic acid and viral vector biotechnology platform technology. As the pandemic ebbs, the success of the novel platform-based vaccines will trigger a possible extension of this technology to diseases beyond COVID-19. In this context, this work explores and highlights the “smartness” of the novel biotechnology platform-based vaccines to aid the research community in their future vaccine development endeavors.

INTRODUCTION
Vaccines are traditionally manufactured from very small amount dead or weak disease-causing germs like bacteria, virus etc. and have been historically successful in preventing, controlling, and eradicating many diseases across the globe. The traditional vaccines follow a phased procedure and can take about 5-10 years from initial development to large scale distribution (1). However, to control the rapid spread of global pandemics such as COVID-19, the conventional timeline of vaccine design, production and supply needs to be accelerated without compromising on vaccine safety, efficacy, and scientific or ethical integrity. Since the traditional vaccines were unable to meet such expectations, biopharma companies had to device new strategies to meet the urgent and growing demand for vaccines worldwide (2). This had triggered significant investments in the vaccine design and manufacturing domain and led to the emergence of vaccine manufacturing techniques based on novel biotechnology platforms.

Vaccines developed using these novel platforms do not involve the injection of disease-causing germs but instead incorporate the ge ...