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THE WORLD now looks likely to have at least two effective vaccines against COVID-19 (coronavirus disease 2019) with the announcement Monday of the first positive data from Moderna, Inc.’s 30,000-person clinical trial The result comes a week after that Pfizer, Inc. and BioNTech SE revealed a more than 90% protection rate against disease. Moderna slightly outperformed its rivals, estimating that its shot is 94.5% effective in preventing COVID-19. Both results are very impressive for inoculations developed at historic speed.
The second success is crucial. Manufacturing limitations mean the world needs multiple vaccines if it hopes to contain the virus. However, as promising as the news about vaccines may be for the fight against COVID-19, it also offers hope for our ability to respond more quickly to future pandemics. Both leading vaccines use the same promising messenger RNA technology, and their combined excellent initial results suggest that the world has a crucial new tool to respond rapidly to disease. Moderna’s stock, reflecting optimism about its vaccine and the long-term promise of its other mRNA efforts, rose 16% in early trades. The market in general also rose.
There are still unanswered questions about these vaccines. And even with two likely to be available relatively soon, the pandemic is so severe in the US and Europe, and initial supplies are so limited, they won’t help much any time soon. But there is a reason these vaccines were the first and have provided a remarkable proof of concept for a fascinating new type of vaccine.
Messenger RNA, or mRNA, instructs cells to make many substances that allow the body to function. These vaccines use carefully engineered strands of mRNA to teach cells to create a modified version of a key coronavirus protein, triggering an immune response that can defend against the real virus. Basically, they turn cells into little drug factories. That is a key advantage. Traditional vaccines use pieces of virus or whole viruses that are killed or weakened, a tried and true process that is often very effective but fundamentally time consuming.
In addition to being faster to manufacture and develop, a feature that helped Pfizer and Moderna quickly begin clinical trials, mRNA is well suited for rapid adaptation. Instead of growing large batches of a protein or virus, drug manufacturers can change the instructions provided by the mRNA. That means researchers could quickly respond to both worrisome mutations in the virus that causes COVID-19, should they arise, and because it is an excellent platform to respond to new threats. Moderna’s result on Monday was based on 95 confirmed cases, boosting confidence in the technology and also provided some additional data that Pfizer and BioNTech have not provided. There were 11 severe cases of COVID in the trial, all of them in people taking a placebo instead of the vaccine, another highly effective suggestion.
Some caveats remain. While none of the companies have reported a major safety issue so far, a lot more data needs to be collected on potential side effects, especially since the technology is new. We still don’t know much about long-term safety and efficacy, and the technology is not widely used. Messenger RNA is also delicate and requires careful cold storage and handling that will complicate distribution, although Moderna’s shot is easier to handle than Pfizer’s. As for the broader promise of technology, the successes cannot be attributed solely to the magic of mRNA. Years of previous work on closely related diseases like SARS and MERS gave scientists an advantage.
But with all that said, it’s hard to argue that these successes are not a boost to global pandemic preparedness. There is now evidence that a highly effective vaccine can be created at high speed, and there is also drastically increased mRNA manufacturing capacity on the horizon. That means next time, there will likely be less scrambling with limited doses. Success will drive investment to solve storage problems and improve on these impressive initial results.
Vaccines using mRNA are the first in the race, but many other inoculations are in development. AstraZeneca PLC and Johnson & Johnson use modified viruses to carry genetic material that elicits an immune response. It is another approach that is fast and adaptable, although not to the same extent as mRNA. They are likely to be the next to reveal data from ongoing trials. Older approaches used by Novavax, Inc. and Sanofi and GlaxoSmithKline PLC may be slower and have not yet entered the final stage of testing in the US, but they can accumulate supplies quickly once they are up and running. Vaccinating everyone will likely require all of the above approaches.
While Pfizer and Moderna’s double dose of success is great news at a time when we could all use it, it’s important to remember that it will still be months before either is widely distributed. If anything, it underscores the need for effective public health measures to stop the spread. The ability to produce vaccines quickly means that many more lives can be saved, but only if countries successfully manage the difficult waiting period.
BLOOMBERG’S OPINION
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