> Moderna was the first vaccine to enter clinical trials back in March. Only 63 days after the genetic sequence of the virus was posted online, the company injected the first volunteer with their candidate. They were able to move so quickly because they used a gene-based technology to create their vaccine. Those types of vaccines are relatively simple to create once researchers know the viral gene they’re trying to target.
> Pfizer and BioNTech’s vaccine was built using the same method. The two are made from tiny pieces of mRNA, which gives the human body instructions to produce copies of the coronavirus spike protein. Then, the immune system learns to defend against that protein. Gene-based vaccines are the long-promised future of vaccine development, but they’ve never been approved for use in people by the Food and Drug Administration. The early successes of the Moderna and Pfizer vaccines are a promising sign for the method.
And of course, being in the middle of a pandemic 'helps', in terms of funding, clearing red tape, and also seeing results in testing (with so many people being infected, you can start to see differences between placebo and not-placebo groups much more quickly).
I don't just mean in terms of external funding, but also internal approval for funding.
It's obviously much, much easier to justify a generous budget (and rapid timeline) to higher-ups for a vaccine when there's a pandemic caused by said virus going on.
Not that governments are the only way to get funding, but BioNTech received $400m from the German federal government to support the Covid vaccine development.
Sure, but what about the other 10's to 100's of Corona vaccines that are currently undergoing phase 2 and 3 trials?
I'm not convinced by the argument that developing and approving a vaccine this fast is mainly possible because of technological advances that happen to be in sync with the pandemic.
It's NOT the development that is fast ... it's the green lighting for proceeding through the phases. The FDA accelerating these trials very much "happen to be in sync with the pandemic"
Are you arguing that it's the norm to go from we want to develop a vaccine against this new disease to here's a vaccine ready for trials within months is the general norm?
Regardless of the massive speedup and exceptions given by the FDA, you don't agree that the lab part of the development was slightly (understatement) faster than usual?
It's a new type of vaccine that's never been approved before, apparently simpler to develop: https://www.theverge.com/2020/11/16/21569345/moderna-covid-1...
> Moderna was the first vaccine to enter clinical trials back in March. Only 63 days after the genetic sequence of the virus was posted online, the company injected the first volunteer with their candidate. They were able to move so quickly because they used a gene-based technology to create their vaccine. Those types of vaccines are relatively simple to create once researchers know the viral gene they’re trying to target.
> Pfizer and BioNTech’s vaccine was built using the same method. The two are made from tiny pieces of mRNA, which gives the human body instructions to produce copies of the coronavirus spike protein. Then, the immune system learns to defend against that protein. Gene-based vaccines are the long-promised future of vaccine development, but they’ve never been approved for use in people by the Food and Drug Administration. The early successes of the Moderna and Pfizer vaccines are a promising sign for the method.
And of course, being in the middle of a pandemic 'helps', in terms of funding, clearing red tape, and also seeing results in testing (with so many people being infected, you can start to see differences between placebo and not-placebo groups much more quickly).