A look at the costs of a coronavirus vaccine

Various companies around the world have been granted money in hopes of finding a coronavirus vaccine, including a $3 billion commitment from the U.S.

Video Transcript

[MUSIC PLAYING]

ANJALEE KHEMLANI: As the world adjusts to a new normal, all eyes are on the race to develop a vaccine for the coronavirus. Various companies around the world have been granted money in hopes of finding a vaccine, including a $3 billion commitment from the US government. But what are the costs associated with finding a vaccine? How long does it take, and who makes the final call? Some hints exist in the past coronavirus outbreaks.

PAUL OFFIT: There was never a vaccine for MERS. There was a vaccine for SARS in development, but when the virus basically never came back, there was little impetus to move forward. I think there will definitely be a vaccine for this.

ANJALEE KHEMLANI: SARS, or Severe Acute Respiratory syndrome, caused about 8,000 cases in the world and 800 deaths in the early 2000s. MERS, or Middle Eastern Respiratory Syndrome, caused about 2,500 cases and 1,000 deaths worldwide.

In addition to traditional manufacturing costs, such as raw materials, facilities, maintenance, and labor, vaccine development must also comply with local and international regulatory laws. There is a global community participating in vaccine trials, and the World Health Organization has tracked more than 95% potential vaccine candidates.

The furthest along is CanSino in China, followed by Moderna, Oxford University, and Pfizer. Johnson & Johnson is also in the race, along with smaller US biotech governments like the US and the UK have committed funding for research conducted through national agencies, while philanthropic groups like the Gates Foundation are also in on the fight.

The funding from the government plays a role in the cost of the vaccine, which also considers research and development, investor returns, production, and the competitive landscape. Vaccines are typically not highly profitable for companies like other drugs because of the single or limited dose. But even if a vaccine is found to be effective, there is no way to meet the unprecedented global demand of several billions of doses.

PAUL OFFIT: I can't imagine we could even fill that level, those millions of doses within a year's time. And we're still doing dose-ranging studies. We're still trying to figure out what dose of this to give. Yeah, I don't want to seem like a bad sport, but, you know, I've worked with the team at Children's Hospital of Philadelphia that created the strains that became the vaccine RotaTeq. I mean, that effort was a 26-year effort.

For example, our final vaccine trial, safety, efficacy trial, was a prospective, placebo-controlled, 70,000-child, 11-country, four-year, $350 million trial to prove that the vaccine was what it was claimed to be. But that didn't prove that it was absolutely safe. I mean Maurice Hilleman, who I consider to be the father of modern vaccines, said it best when he said, "I never breathe a sigh of relief until the first 3 million doses are out there."

ANJALEE KHEMLANI: At the end of the day, it is up to the FDA to analyze all available data and approve or deny the vaccine candidate. And officials have expressed concern at the condensed timelines, with everyone racing to compete with China's September goal. But others say it could take longer than 2020 to have a vaccine reach every person. If an approval does happen this year, health workers and other essential workers are likely to get vaccinated first.

PAUL OFFIT: You really do need to do an efficacy trial. You want to make sure that the vaccine works, I think, before you put it out there. I imagine that the-- that efficacy trial would probably be done in health care workers. I mean, they're the ones who are on the front lines. They're the ones who are most likely to be exposed.

This is going to be an amazing educational experience, painful though it is. I'd like to think this is the lesson that ends all lessons about this, that we need to be prepared. For in so many ways, for a country as wealthy and as scientifically advanced as ours, it's-- it's really unconscionable that we've been so slow to react to this.

[MUSIC PLAYING]