How Many Different Covid-19 Vaccines Do We Need?
An historic push to create an inoculation against Covid-19 has led to a profusion of vaccine candidates. What do we do with them all?
The vaccine effort has been heroic and speedy but with so many in development, that raises questions.
Photographer: Bing Guan/BloombergSam Fazeli, a Bloomberg Opinion contributor who covers the pharmaceutical industry for Bloomberg Intelligence, answered questions about Covid-19 vaccines. The shot developed by Pfizer Inc. and BioNTech SE was the first to win early use authorization, but there are a handful of other candidates in trials, and one by Moderna Inc. may get the green light for use in the U.S. as soon as this week. The vaccine effort has been heroic and speedy, but it’s hard to keep track of the myriad candidates, and their differences raise questions. The conversation has been edited and condensed.
Moderna’s Covid-19 vaccine is all but certain to gain authorization by the U.S Food and Drug Administration this week, and Pfizer-BioNTech’s shot is already in use. If there are two approved vaccines, isn't that good enough? Why keep working on more?