A pharmacist prepares a booster shot of the COVID-19 vaccine during a Chicago Department of Public Health event at Southwest Senior Center on September 9, 2022 in Chicago, Illinois.
Scott Olson | Getty Images
three years and Billions of COVID-19 vaccinations into the epidemic, Pfizer and modern Say their work is far from over.
These two pharmaceutical companies have become household names for their Covid vaccines, They are ushering in a new era for their vaccines that will elevate their role in protecting public health while also simplifying what people need to do to live with the virus.
That involves developing new versions of vaccines designed to provide broader and longer-lasting immunity to the virus, as well as combination vaccines that protect against Covid and other respiratory diseases in a single dose, among other efforts.
These plans dovetail with broader changes in the Covid pandemic landscape.
With the public health emergency over in the U.S. and globally, uptake and sales growth of the vaccine has slowed, and both Pfizer and Moderna will sell their vaccines directly to healthcare providers in the fall for around $110 to $130 per dose, By then the Federal Reserve’s supply of free vaccines is expected to run out.
Neither company provided CNBC with an update on the exact private market price of their vaccine.
Many of Pfizer and Moderna’s vaccine programs may not be available to the public for several more years, and the success of these efforts is not guaranteed.
“One of the great things about Moderna is the company’s willingness to invest even when it’s not obvious exactly where things are going,” Dr. Jacqueline Miller, head of Moderna’s infectious disease therapeutic area, told CNBC.
Here’s what Moderna and Pfizer say are next steps for a Covid vaccine.
Annual Covid Shot
Pfizer and Moderna aim to keep pace with the U.S. shift toward annual Covid shots rather than frequent booster doses.
Regulators are sending Influenza Vaccine Model For the Covid vaccine, that means people will be vaccinated once a year, with annual updates to target the latest variants that are expected to circulate in the fall and winter. FDA’s independent advisory panel will meet in june Choose which strains of Covid should be targeted by a new vaccine due later this year.
Both Moderna and Pfizer told CNBC, messenger RNA technology Will enable them to keep pace with new Covid variants every year.
That technologywhich both companies are using in the Covid shot, teaches the body’s cells to produce a protein that kickstarts an immune response against a disease.
Miller, who helped lead the development of Moderna’s Covid lens in 2020, said the advantages of using mRNA became apparent early on in the pandemic. This includes the ability to quickly scale up lens manufacturing and easily change target variants.
“Vaccines are proving the value of mRNA in a pandemic when you need to make something quickly,” Miller told CNBC. “The speed of the platform — it lets us do things three times faster.”
A health care worker receives a dose of the Pfizer-BioNTech Covid-19 vaccine at the vaccination clinic at the Peabody Institute library in Peabody, Mass., U.S., Wednesday, Jan. 26, 2022.
Vanessa Leroy | Bloomberg | Getty Images
Dr. Mikael Dolsten, Pfizer chief scientific officer, hoping that the annual Covid vaccine will improve public confidence in vaccinations. In the early stages of the pandemic, he said, there was growing public dissatisfaction with hygiene demands, and “unfortunately, some people think vaccines are part of that.”
Dolsten said the annual plan might help people see the Covid vaccine as another “very natural part” of protecting their health and encourage more people to get vaccinated every year.
“I think it’s like the introduction of seat belts in cars. People didn’t want to wear them at first, but over time they realized how much they protected them. Now everyone is using them today,” Dolsten told CNBC . “This is how the vaccine story needs to be reimagined.”
‘Next Generation’ Covid Shots
Both Pfizer’s and Moderna’s Covid vaccines offer strong protection against the virus, but that immunity starts to wear off after four to six months.
Part of Pfizer’s strategy to move to an annual Covid vaccination program is to develop “next-generation” versions of the vaccine, designed to broaden and extend the protection people get for a full year.
“The protection is still there, but it’s tapering off, and we’re using two different approaches to make it more of an annual persistence for most people,” Dolsten told CNBC.
Pfizer and its Covid vaccine partners Biological Technology Dolsten said they are working on a vaccine that could boost antibody levels “several times” after vaccination.
The vaccine won’t work much differently than the company’s current vaccine, which teaches cells how to make harmless copies of the Covid spike protein. The immune system detects this protein and produces protective antibodies that help ward off the virus but diminish over time.
The main difference is that the next-generation vaccine will teach cells how to make copies of the “boosted” spike protein, which will produce higher levels of antibodies that last for a full year.
“If we triple the antibodies, that means they last and protect for a year,” Dolsten said.
The company is working on a second vaccine designed to boost T cells, another form of protection that targets and destroys Covid-infected cells.
In addition to the antibody, Pfizer’s existing injection triggers the production of T cells that target the spike protein. T cells decay more slowly than antibodies, meaning they provide long-term protection against the virus.
Pfizer is adding another mRNA strain to its new vaccine to amplify T cell responses.
The strain specifically elicits an increase in T cells to fight other parts of the coronavirus (called the non-spike protein). These T cells, in addition to T cells raised against the spike protein, will provide protection against “every corner of the Covid viral environment,” Dolsten said.
The non-spike proteins also mutated more slowly than the spike proteins, meaning that any T cells generated against them would likely protect against various Covid variants.
Empty vials of Pfizer-BioNTech’s coronavirus disease (COVID-19) vaccine for children are pictured at the Skippack Pharmacy in Schwenksville, Pennsylvania, U.S., on May 19, 2022.
Hannah Bell | Reuters
Moderna’s chief medical officer, Dr. Paul Burton, said the company has its own “next-generation” Covid vaccine that aims to improve how it is stored and administered.
The company’s current footage must be kept in ultra-cold storage.Once thawed, the vaccine can be stored in the refrigerator for up to 30 days, according to the FDA guide.
Moderna’s new vaccine will be “refrigerated stable,” meaning it will last longer in refrigerators, Burton said. The company will do this by shortening the length of the mRNA strand in the vaccine, Burton said.
Such a vaccine could increase the number of global vaccine suppliers, especially in developing countries that may not have the ability to freeze them.
Moderna is working on lenses Phase 3 triall, Burton said. The company’s existing Covid shot is its only commercial product.
combination lens
Both Pfizer and Moderna are pinning their hopes on a new series of combination vaccines that promise to offer strong protection against Covid and certain respiratory diseases in a single dose.
Demand for the vaccine is growing because certain changes in society are creating a “more prosperous environment” for infection, Dolsten said.
Climate change is pushing up the temperature of the planet.population is live longer But as they get older, they become more susceptible to the disease. More and more people are moving within countries and across borders.
These factors contribute to the spread of different diseases, sometimes simultaneously, Dolsten said. For example, the United States experienced a so-called triple epidemic of the new coronavirus, respiratory syncytial virus and influenza last winter.
Dolsten said people may not remember getting three different vaccines for these respiratory diseases each year, or even feel uncomfortable. So creating a lens that would help people fight multiple people at once would “simplify their lives,” he said.
Influenza virus, RSV and Covid-19 vaccine vials.Flu, RSV and Sars-cov-2 coronavirus vaccine vials in clinic
Angel | Stock | Getty Images
Pfizer and BioNTech are developing a vaccine against Covid and flu.Affiliated company Phase 1 trial begins shoot for november and say they expected launch It’s in 2024 or later.
The drugmaker is also conducting clinical trials of another vaccine against Covid and RSV, Dolsten said. Pfizer first hopes to win FDA approval for its RSV vaccine for the elderly later this month, he noted.
Meanwhile, Moderna’s shooting targets Covid and the flu In early clinical trials. Another vaccine against flu and RSV is also in early stages. Moderna is also developing a triple combination vaccine that targets COVID-19, influenza and respiratory syncytial virus simultaneously.
Burton said Moderna’s combination vaccine It could come as early as 2025, noting that the company still needs FDA approval for its individual flu and RSV vaccines.
Since Covid, RSV and influenza can be deadly, the public health benefits of a combination vaccine would have “a huge impact globally,” Burton said. The availability of these lenses could encourage more people to take pictures, he added.
“Having to get three different shots each time, and then going to the chain pharmacy several times, can be a burden for people,” Burton told CNBC. “So, to be able to get one 3-in-1 or 2-in-1 shot — we know that compliance and compliance is huge for a government.”