The advent of coronavirus vaccines has boosted global demand for dry ice, as the drug should only be stored at low temperatures. According to CNBC, this is the Pfizer vaccine. Large freezers are expensive and hospital budgets were already tight during the pandemic, so dry ice is now the best alternative.
A spokesman for Vida, a New Jersey-based company, said that, on average, it shipped up to 100,000 tons of dry ice daily, but recently shipments have almost doubled. The main customers are hospitals and pharmacies, which will need to comply with the storage conditions for drugs. At the same time, the vaccine itself has not yet been finally approved. The main problem with dry ice is that it cannot be stored for a long time. Over time, it returns to gaseous form, so to maintain the temperature, it will have to be constantly enclosed.
Earlier in December it became known that billions of the world’s inhabitants most likely did not will receive the coronavirus vaccine soon as rich countries have snapped up most of the most promising drugs. Canada has bought the most doses per capita: enough to vaccinate every Canadian five times. Almost all drugs from Pfizer will go to the West: 96 percent of the doses have already been bought there.