Large-Scale COVID-19 Vaccine Production with Purpose

In the race to develop a vaccine for COVID-19, collaboration continues to be a determining factor. We've seen the best and brightest scientific minds come together to identify and accelerate production—not just for one vaccine, but for all of the approved formulas.

As an essential manufacturer during the pandemic, many Parker groups and divisions have come together to apply various technologies to combat this virus in innovative ways. From helping to generate clean air for emergency workers in medical tents to contributing to the manufacturing of ventilators and now vaccine development and production, Parker team members have been leading with purpose both on the front lines and behind the scenes.

"We've been working with drug manufacturers since 1988," explains Dean Pighin, engineering manager for Parker's Bioscience and Water Filtration Division "So when those manufacturers shifted focus to developing and then mass-producing coronavirus vaccines, they knew they could count on support from Parker."

Parker already had equipment in place—filtration assemblies, sensing elements and automated systems—and was therefore able to focus on scaling that customer support for vaccine manufacturers with additional systems and an on-site team.

"We've now been through several different phases with several different manufacturers," says Pighin. "When the vaccines were in development, we provided smaller scale systems for testing and trials. Then we needed to scale from batch processing to continuous processing so we built a brand new system designed for high volume manufacturing."

From the innovative new filtration and dispensing systems needed to grow production from 200 liters per day to 2,000 liters per hour to an in-line dilution system used to feed the bio-reactors and provide buffers to wash and purify the drugs at different stages, large-scale vaccine production has been a boon to Parker's drive, determination and ingenuity. It's also more than tripled business in single-use sensors, assemblies and manifolds for drug production, as well as sterilization and filtration products.

Certainly this is a story of rapid expansion, as the team needed to grow infrastructure and lean out processes, add more shifts, invest in new tooling and bring on people in engineering, production and supply chain. But it's also a story about great personal sacrifice in pursuit of the greater good.

"Our team has shown up for us over and over again, given more than we asked and they've done it without thinking twice," adds Pighin. "I'm so proud of every single person who decided that this was the right thing to do for humanity."