We all were amazed by the fast development of the Covid-19 vaccines. A race began in January 2020 with the availability of the viral sequence. The first winners of this race were declared in December 2020 when the first vaccines were granted an emergency use marketing authorization. The authors of a paper published on the New England Journal of Medicine state that “The development of SARS-CoV-2 vaccines in less than 1 year was a scientific triumph. Yet, during the 326 days between the viral sequence becoming available in January 2020 and emergency authorization of the first vaccines by a stringent regulatory authority, more than 70 million Covid-19 cases and 1.6 million resulting deaths were recorded worldwide.”1

As there are probably more pandemics in our future, there is a new challenge facing all of us as Medical Affairs professionals- the development of new vaccines in just 100 days. Will this ever be possible?

References

  1. Saville, M., Cramer, J. P., Downham, M., Hacker, A., Lurie, N., van der Veken, L., Whelan, M., & Hatchett, R. (2022). Delivering Pandemic Vaccines in 100 Days — What Will It Take? New England Journal of Medicine, 387(2), e3. https://doi.org/10.1056/nejmp2202669

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