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Taxpayer Funded Research And The Covid-19 Vaccine

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For the first time in more than 25 years, respect for the biopharmaceutical industry rose dramatically in 2020 due in large part to the unprecedented delivery of vaccines against Covid-19. Within a year of the virus being detected in the U.S., Pfizer, Moderna and J&J all delivered vaccines. In addition, over the next couple of months, it is likely that two more vaccines (from AstraZeneca and Novavax) will also be available in this country. Instead of facing continued shutdowns, remote learning, business closures, etc., we now have the promise of a return to relative normalcy by summer – all due to the remarkable efforts of biopharma.

However, it appears that going back to normal also includes the reemergence of biopharma critics. Certainly, this industry isn’t perfect. But, one would hope that critiques of biopharma would focus on substantial issues and not the rehashing of tired and, quite frankly, incorrect arguments. That is the case with a recent opinion piece in the New York Times: “Taxpayers Fund Research and Drug Companies Make a Fortune”.

“Over the past several decades, as private companies invested less in vaccines, the government, fearing a pandemic, took up the slack. Scientific advances in mRNA vaccine technology that were funded by the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) enabled Pfizer and Moderna to start working on a coronavirus vaccine as soon as the virus’s genetic sequence was available.

“The United States government was prepared to spend whatever was necessary - $18 billion to date - to facilitate the development of vaccines that would end the spread of the coronavirus. The government was willing to assume the financial risks of vaccine development to permit the companies to begin manufacturing doses before clinical trials were even completed.”

Unfortunately, this narrative leaves out a number of facts. First of all, for over 100 years, the U.S. has invested in basic scientific research for a number of reasons including defense, technology development, and health. For example, the 2021 budget for the NIH is $43 billion which is allotted across a wide variety of disease areas including cancer, metabolic diseases and infectious diseases – including vaccines. These early investments are important to generate hypotheses for understanding the fundamental causes of disease or to develop new technologies. Some of those early experiments did help to lay the foundation for mRNA vaccines. But it must be noted that mRNA vaccines were still in the conceptual stage when the coronavirus pandemic began.

Because of the promise of mRNA vaccines, in 2018 Pfizer began a collaboration with BioNTech to explore the potential of this technology for vaccines against viruses like influenza. When the pandemic broke, Pfizer and BioNTech quickly shifted their focus to Covid-19 and Pfizer made a number of at risk investments first to bring forward four experimental vaccines to human studies, then selecting the best all the while building the manufacturing capabilities assuming these efforts would be successful. Notably, Pfizer eschewed government funding believing that the extra bureaucracy would slow down its efforts. This was significant. At the time, Pfizer CEO, Dr. Albert Bourla, said that Pfizer would be investing more than $2 billion in its vaccine efforts bravely saying that if this failed, losing $2 billion “wouldn’t break us”. Perhaps, but given that Pfizer’s 2020 sales were $41 billion, $2 billion was a big – and risky - bet. People forget that when the mRNA vaccines were first discussed, Dr. Anthony Fauci hoped that at best they would be 60% effective. In reality, these vaccines have proven to be 95% effective.

Yes, Operation Warp Speed (OWS) contributed funds to enable Moderna to build the capacity to produce its vaccine. Moderna is a small company and its Covid-19 vaccine is its first product to make it to patients. Moderna didn’t have anywhere near enough capital to build manufacturing plants. By helping to finance Moderna’s efforts, as well as those of J&J, Novavax, etc., the U.S. government helped to create the situation where we will have over 600 million doses of Covid-19 vaccines by summer – enough to vaccinate every adult. Plus, more doses will be available later in the fall. Isn’t this the purpose of government during a crisis? Shouldn’t this type of government support be expected? Yes, OWS allotted $18 billion to date to accomplish this. But, contrast this to nearly $5 TRILLION that has been allocated by the government for the various pandemic relief packages.

When the coronavirus pandemic broke, dozens of biopharmaceutical companies immediately refocused R&D efforts to finding vaccines and therapeutics that could be used to fight the virus. A lot of these efforts have failed. Fortunately, enough have succeeded and that will prevent the deaths of millions of people. We all should be thankful for this. At the very least, can we please stop denigrating the industry that has helped to stop the biggest health crisis of the last century?

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