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The key ingredient that could hold back vaccine manufacturing

Covid-19 vaccine manufacturers are racing to find a special kind of charged lipid called ionizable cationic lipids, which essentially facilitate the entrance of the mRNA into the cell. These ionizable cationic lipids are made synthetically in what can be an incredibly complex process. Lipid nanoparticles are essential to the Moderna and Pfizer/BioNTech vaccines. There are a limited number of facilities outfitted to produce ionizable cationic lipids, and retrofitting an existing facility to produce them could be a months-long process.

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