In the year of the Corona Virus 2020 we are still learning and growing. Recently we have been able to leave the garage door open to get a nice flow of air in the Precision CNC Machining lab. We are in school 5 days a week – 7 hours a day. We have young College age and High school seniors in our program. We all wear masks in class.

Recent news of a vaccine is very encouraging and made me think about manufacturing in the medical industry. How we in the US are well known for being cutting edge and meeting a challenge.

In World War II, the manufacturing industry had to meet a challenge of going to war. To make all the equipment needed. They also had to engineer new ideas and trouble shoot issues. The United States biggest asset was the ability to quickly pivot its great industrial might and meet the challenge in a un-imaginable time line. We out manufactured the enemy. Now the enemy is the Corona Virus. Operation Warp Speed.

Operation Warp Speed (OWS) is a public–private partnership, initiated by the U.S. government under the Trump administration to facilitate and accelerate the development, manufacturing, and distribution of COVID-19 vaccines, therapeutics, and diagnostics. Operation Warp Speed was introduced in early April 2020,after a round-table meeting with industry executives at the White House on March 2.

The US Government and Private industry has swung into action again.

Scientists Ugur Sahin and Ozlem Tureci have dedicated their lives to the field of oncology and infectious diseases, and spent years pioneering personalized immunotherapy treatments for cancer. But amid the coronavirus pandemic, the couple’s groundbreaking research in the field of modified genetic code has catapulted them into the public eye, as the brains behind the world’s first effective coronavirus vaccine. BioNTech.

On Nov. 9, Pfizer and its partner BioNTech announced some early results for their Covid-19 vaccine candidate. Data from a late-stage clinical trial show the two-dose shot could be 90% effective at preventing infections. There are also multiple other companies that are developing vaccines as well.

President Donald J. Trump today announced that Army Gen. Gustave F. Perna, the commander of Army Materiel Command, will co-lead an effort, dubbed Operation Warp Speed, to find a vaccine for COVID-19 by January 2021.

Defense Secretary Dr. Mark T. Esper said the Defense Department is very excited and committed to partnering with the Department of Health and Human Services, across the government, and in the private sector to accomplish the mission. “Winning matters, and we will deliver by the end of this year a vaccine at scale to treat the American people and our partners abroad,” he said.

Things are looking good again – Give Credit where credit is due.

Some of our graduates work at various medical companies. The Medical MFG industry demand for skilled manufacturing technicians is huge and all our schools currently cannot meet demand. Great career opportunities. Medical implant industry – titanium knee, hip and spinal. Surgical tooling for doing these operations. I just had shoulder surgery for torn rotator cuff. We had visited the manufacturer 5 years ago who made all the equipment that was used by my surgeon.

The vaccine industry requires automation equipment to be made.

Vaccine manufacturers are beginning to leverage process technology that already benefits the broader biotechnology industry.

Sanofi, though its subsidiary Sanofi Pasteur, is one of the world’s largest vaccine suppliers. Kressmann sees the need to accelerate production in line with growing demand as a major manufacturing innovation driver.

“It takes between 6 and 36 months to produce, package, and deliver high-quality vaccines to those who need them,” he observes. “It includes testing each batch of vaccine at every step of its process, and repeat quality control of batches by different regulatory authorities around the world.

“Vaccine manufacturing is a biological process where a very high level of expertise is required. We need to continually adapt production processes to satisfy evolving regulatory demands, which vary country by country.”

The need for faster production has also been recognized by technology suppliers, says Daria Donati, PhD, director, business development and innovation, GE Healthcare Life Sciences (recently acquired by Danaher). “Speed is paramount when dealing with disease outbreaks,”

Innovation also gives vaccine firms a chance to reduce costs, says Janice Paquette, head of bioprocessing, segments, process solutions, MilliporeSigma.

“A central part of MilliporeSigma’s mission and corporate responsibility program focuses on finding cost-effective ways to accelerate vaccine development and manufacturing,”

The war is not over , it still has to be fought. People are still getting sick and dying while we prepare to do battle once again in this new World War against an invisible enemy.

Its no time to go into everyday battle without our protective gear.

Mask up while we wait for the US Calvary to arrive.