BIO President and CEO Dr. Michelle McMurry-Heath answers this question and more on an episode of the CBS podcast “America: Changed Forever.”
3 COVID vaccines have been authorized for emergency use in the United States: two mRNA vaccines (Moderna and Pfizer-BioNTech) and one adenovirus-based vaccine (Johnson & Johnson).
“They basically all use the over-100-year-old technology behind vaccines,” says Dr. Michelle—but they differ in “how they deliver that building block” that prepares the body to fight the virus when it eventually encounters it. (Listen starting around 11:00:00.)
mRNA is a new vaccine vehicle—but the technology has been under development for 30 years. mRNA is “notoriously unstable,” so it took a long time to understand how to keep it stable enough to be that delivery vehicle.
The pandemic accelerated this research—thanks to “an unprecedented level of collaboration and coordination” between federal agencies and regulators, companies, and non-profits to ensure we were working “at our most optimal speed.”
But: “We’re not satisfied with that 12-month turnaround,” she adds. The Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations (CEPI) is calling for speeding up vaccine development “so that the next time we face an unknown virus we’re able to turn around and answer in as little as 100 days.”
Really? “We’re definitely learning how to do the critical steps much more robustly and much more quickly. So, while we’re not there yet…it is now within reach and it seems completely reasonable.”
Listen to the whole thing for interesting insights on innovation in the age of COVID, including how we get vaccines to low-income countries and the likelihood of another pandemic, plus what was behind the Zoom boom.
More Health Care News:
Forbes: BioNTech’s CEO on the next era of mRNA vaccines
“The triumph of the COVID-19 vaccine, Uğur Şahin says, is ‘motivating us to use the success to further accelerate our other programs.’”
STAT News: Cavazzoni to take over influential spot atop FDA drug center
“Patrizia Cavazzoni has been named the permanent leader of the Food and Drug Administration’s Center for Drug Evaluation and Research.”
