Trials In Focus: How COVID-19 Studies Set New Standards For Collaboration, Diversity

Ask anyone in the US about COVID-19 vaccines, and they usually will think of either “Moderna” or “Pfizer,” which are popular shorthand for Moderna, Inc.’s Spikevax and Pfizer Inc./BioNTech SE’s Comirnaty. What they often don’t know is the enormous amount of effort and coordination across government, drug makers, academia and communities that went into making those vaccines possible.

A report published 23 January in JAMA details the creation of the COVID-19 Prevention Network (CoVPN), part of Operation Warp Speed, which enabled the rapid development of a variety of vaccines, of which Spikevax and Comirnaty are the leaders in Western markets, while Novavax, Inc.’s Nuvaxovid has regulatory approvals in the US, Europe and other markets