With lavish dollars, governments help create ‘science victory’ in coronavirus vaccine hunt

The scientific community remains cautiously optimistic about the search for a COVID-19 vaccine that can usher in the end of a pandemic that has infected nearly 23 million people and killed nearly 800,000.

The rapid spread of the virus has created an unprecedented demand for an effective treatment, which by all indications can be found in record time – in large part thanks to government intervention to support the efforts of biotech and pharmaceutical companies. .

While a number of public health and philanthropic departments are also involved in the high-stakes race, governments are the backbone of far-reaching research and development efforts. The US Health and Human Services (HHS) Operation Warp Speed ​​and the efforts of the UK’s National Health Services (NHS) have helped spur vaccine research and testing to produce a vaccine in record time.

America has spent more than $ 10 billion on at least 800 million doses, including almost $ 2 billion at Pfizer (PFE) / BioNTech (BNTX) for 100 million doses, even though the duo are not receiving any federal funding for research and production of their vaccine.

Entities like Emergent BioSolutions, Grand River Aseptic Manufacturing Inc., Texas A&M University and FUJIFILM have been sealed off for more than $ 1 billion in total, to help domestic manufacture of COVID-19 vaccines.

To date, the fastest vaccine against a new disease has been produced in four years.

“The virus has yet to celebrate its first anniversary and already (over) 150 vaccine candidates are being manufactured and tested,” said Dr Kevin Tracey, president of the Feinstein Institutes for Medical Research at Northwell Health, to Yahoo Finance in an interview.

It is “a victory for science,” he added, while acknowledging that not all candidates will make it to the market.

Collaborations have formed internationally, with groups such as the World Health Organization (WHO), the Global Vaccine Alliance (GAVI), the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations (CEPI ), all involved in supporting and working with companies in the race for a vaccine.

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But among the hundreds of applicants currently in the mix, some are also receiving funds to provide doses to governments. This includes the United States, Great Britain, the European Union, and Australia.

Vaccines become lucrative amid key unknowns

The market for a covid vaccine is estimated at $ 100 billion in sales and $ 40 billion in profits, according to an Evercore ISI analysis. And while some big players are expected to give doses to low-income countries or sell for no profit, others have declared their intention to profit from the global pandemic.

Traditionally, vaccines have been a less profitable product, due to older technology and longer production times. But recent candidates for shingles and the human papillomavirus (HPV) are profitable, according to Arthur Caplan, professor and bioethicist at NYU Langone Medical Center.

“It got lucrative,” Caplan said.

New technologies like messenger RNA and thermostable candidates offer businesses the opportunity to make money. And the need for two doses effectively doubles the income potential, while halving the number of people with access to supplies.

Most of the pioneers tested in the United States are two-dose vaccines, consisting of a prime and a booster within one month. These prove to be the most effective against the virus for a longer period

Dr Dan Barouch, professor of medicine and immunology at Harvard Medical School, told Yahoo Finance’s Andy Serwer that a need for two-dose inoculation will depend on the durability of the vaccine. The duration of the immunity “is really an unknown question”, he added.

The long term effects on the body are also unknown. Recent data from a group of sailors have shown potential long-term immunity, and studies continue to analyze long-term impacts on the lungs, brain and other parts of the body.

The WHO has focused on developing vaccines as a tool to help curb the global spread of the virus – but warns that there is still a lot to learn and that finding an effective vaccine could take time.

“Although we have learned a lot about this disease, we only have less than 8 months of experience on which to draw. We still know relatively little about the long-term effects, ”WHO director Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said on Friday.

And experts say that even if a vaccine is found by the end of 2020, it will likely be part of a first generation of vaccines and be less effective than later versions that companies might release.

Price, manufacturing – and costs

The sheer volume of taxpayer dollars pouring into private pharmaceutical companies, many of which intend to profit from the pandemic and have benefited from soaring stock valuations, continues to amplify negative perceptions about the sector.

Companies like Moderna (MRNA) and Novavax (NVAX), which have no products on the market and were trading below $ 20 a share in January, have seen their market capitalization jump to over $ 26 billion and 8 billion dollars, respectively, on the soaring pigtails. stock prices.

In the past, the US government has stepped up to fund a public health crisis, but not quite on the same scale. During the 2009 H1N1 influenza pandemic, which was much less severe than COVID-19, the Obama administration funded the distribution of the vaccine through public and private health systems, with a priority list established by the CDC.

Kathleen Sebellius, former HHS secretary under President Barack Obama, told Yahoo Finance that there were questions about how a vaccine will be distributed, if the FDA can meet its commitment to release a vaccine only when it has proven to be safe and effective – and so will insurers. be charged for administration of vaccines.

An additional question is whether businesses “that have already been prepaid are trying to charge again,” she said.

But there are also questions about confidence in a safe and effective vaccine. The 50% effective rate that the FDA has set is “a very low bar,” Sebellius said. She wondered whether the approval of a vaccine will inject a new round of policy into an already polarizing debate.

But one of the main differences is that in the midst of the conversation about vaccine nationalism, the United States has more production capacity on its own compared to 2009. Sebellius recalled that the country should “stand in line. To buy vaccines that were mainly produced abroad.

“It’s no surprise that countries with capabilities also had constituencies that were in the lead. One of the efforts that followed was to develop a much more robust manufacturing capacity in the United States, which we have now, ”she said – which has tripled.

Anjalee Khemlani is a journalist at Yahoo Finance. Follow her on Twitter: @AnjKhem

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