Speeding Up Technology Transfer: A Case Study of an Emerging Country on the Pursuit of a COVID-19 Vaccine

In this paper, we focus on the development and manufacturing of a vaccine to combat the COVID-19. COVID-19 vaccine has been considered by many specialists as the best strategy to face the pandemic. Developing a safe and effective vaccine to combat COVID-19 in a timely manner is as daunting as scaling-up manufacturing to produce billions of doses. To accomplish such a goal, pharmaceutical companies have to prepare themselves in terms of infrastructure to ramp-up production as quickly as possible. One potential alternative to do that is to build a network of manufacturing partners. We consider the question of how to speed up technology transfer to ramp-up production under time pressure. We explore the main factors that enact the execution of technology transfer, with particular focus on the managerial and strategic dimensions to support a swift vaccine technology transfer. We conduct an in-depth case study between a multinational pharmaceutical industry and a research and production institute, located in an emerging country. In spite of the present paper still being an ongoing research, we believe our results already shed light on how to prepare for the effective fight against pandemics that may arise in the future.