No it's Pfizer too.
Here:
https://www.rollcall.com/2020/10/13/deep-freezers-and-dry-ice-for-pfizer-vaccine-may-face-shortages/
There are fewer than 10 national suppliers of medical grade deep freezers, experts say. A recent market report identified nine major suppliers.
“When you’re going to buy a medical grade freezer, it’s not like walking into Best Buy to buy a refrigerator and freezer for your home,” said Azra Behlim, a medical supply chain expert who leads a COVID-19 task force at Vizient Inc. and who led vaccination planning for Walgreens during the H1N1 pandemic.
The time it takes to manufacture and distribute a freezer under normal circumstances varies from 10 days to six weeks. One supplier, Helmer Scientific, announced last week that it’s experiencing a delay in fulfilling orders.
Luckily, some hospitals have these specialized freezers even if they don’t realize it, Belhim said, although their sizes vary widely “from the size of a table top or the top of a desk to the size of a TV tray.”
Some concern about the freezers’ availability was relieved recently after Pfizer announced it designed a special short-term cooler for keeping its COVID-19 vaccine in dry ice. Dry ice is a little colder than the vaccine must be: -109.3 degrees Fahrenheit.
Pfizer’s cooler or “thermal shipper,” which is the size of a carry-on suitcase, is capable of storing unopened vaccines for 10 days, said Tanya Alcorn, Pfizer’s vice president of biopharma global supply chain.
The Food and Drug Administration requires any vaccine it reviews to be stable on the shelf for at least 10 days.
Once opened, the vials can be stored at a more common 36 to 46 degrees Fahrenheit for five days, Alcorn said. Most pharmacies have these refrigerators, she said.
The cooler can also store the vaccine for up to 15 days after opening if the cooler is replenished with more dry ice. To do that, the cooler could be opened no more than once every five days and for no longer than one minute.
“There’s no historical precedent for us maintaining vaccines on dry ice in the United States. That’s never happened,” testified Paul Offit, an adviser to the FDA on vaccines and director of vaccine education at the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia, before Congress last month. “We’ve always shipped in the United States at most at freezer temperatures. … I do worry about that. I think it’s going to be an enormous challenge.”
Pfizer will make its own dry ice for its manufacturing sites and distribution centers, but it’s again up to states, territories and major cities to track down their own supply once Pfizer’s suitcases arrive, Alcorn said.
Behlim is unclear on whether the nation’s supply of dry ice will be enough. According to her research, there are fewer than half a dozen national suppliers. A recent market report lists five major companies.
“That’s where you have the bottleneck,” she said.
The demand for dry ice has increased during the pandemic because of a spike in meal kit delivery memberships. There were 90 percent more new HelloFresh customers in the first quarter of 2020 compared to 2019, and Sun Basket experienced a doubling in orders, according to the business publication IndustryBrief.
Behlim says the potential for a dry ice shortage is among her top two concerns about the entire vaccination effort.
“When you look at the front runners for when a vaccine will be available the soonest, they’re the ones that require dry ice. That could potentially put the brakes on actually being able to get vaccines into people’s arms,” she said.
Alcorn said Pfizer is not anticipating a dry ice shortage “as of today.”
