Reported last night on CBS 60 Minutes.
If Pfizer receives FDA approval, Pfizer and BioNTech expect to manufacture over 1.3 billion doses of their vaccine#Covid19Vaccine worldwide by the end of 2021. The Pfizer is based on mRNA Vaccine. Briefly, when you are given an mRNA vaccine, the mRNA goes to your immune cell’s ribosomes and tells them to create the virus antigen (identifying protein). That antigen would then be recognized by your immune system, and the cells of the immune system would create the antibodies you need to fight off the virus. This type of vaccine skips the need for you to be infected, and the immune cells to find the virus, process it, and present the viral antigens to your immune system
Moderna's vaccine is also based on mRNA and started clinical trials in humans early this year. They are on track to potentially deliver by end of year.
Operation Warp Speed has been undeway since early 2020. Its goals are simply produce and deliver 300 million doses of safe and effective vaccines with the initial doses available by January 2021, as part of a broader strategy to accelerate the development, manufacturing, and distribution of COVID-19 vaccines, therapeutics, and diagnostics. One of their biggest challenges is that preparations based on mRNA will falls apart unless kept in a deep freeze. As a result, the vaccine will have to be chilled to minus 80 degrees Celsius (minus 112 degrees Fahrenheit) until it’s ready to be injected. But General Gustave Perna who is leading Operation Warp Speed is confident they can deliver.
There are 138 vaccines in clinicals and preclinical tesing. The race is on to develop a vaccine and there is a lot at stake. Besides saving lives, there is literally billions of dollars at play. Key pharmaceutical companies leading the charge include:
Pfizer
Moderna
Novavax
AstraZeneca
J&J
Sanofi/GSK
Eli Lilly
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