WEBVTT - Breakthrough, Part Seven: The Vaccine Race 0:00:00.000 --> 0:00:09.440 It's a cloudy, freezing Friday night in January. In Minds, 0:00:10.080 --> 0:00:15.120 a university town in central Germany, or Shine, a doctor 0:00:15.280 --> 0:00:18.840 and cancer researcher, bikes home from his lab in the dark. 0:00:19.760 --> 0:00:22.400 He makes a cup of tea and settles in to 0:00:22.480 --> 0:00:28.760 read the week's medical journals and starts with leading papers. 0:00:29.400 --> 0:00:32.320 Has spent more than twenty years of his life trying 0:00:32.360 --> 0:00:35.320 to figure out how to use the body's immune system 0:00:35.360 --> 0:00:40.600 to target and destroy tumors. But tonight, a different disease 0:00:40.680 --> 0:00:46.040 catches his interest. An ominous new virus is spreading in China. 0:00:46.400 --> 0:00:49.880 Medical journal The Lancet has just published the first case 0:00:49.920 --> 0:00:53.680 descriptions for forty one people who'd gotten sick in the 0:00:53.720 --> 0:00:58.960 city of Juhan. Uger notices one thing right away. A 0:00:59.080 --> 0:01:02.200 new message in this paper was that one of the 0:01:02.360 --> 0:01:07.720 family members had the disease was VIBUS positive, but did 0:01:07.760 --> 0:01:10.840 not have fever or other symptoms. This was new. The 0:01:10.920 --> 0:01:15.720 asymptomatic cases meant the virus could spread in secret. The 0:01:15.840 --> 0:01:20.280 symptoms described in the article are serious pneumonia, heart injury, 0:01:20.680 --> 0:01:25.360 six deaths. Uer looks up the population of Juhan, eleven 0:01:25.440 --> 0:01:29.880 million people, bigger than central London. Then he checks flights 0:01:29.880 --> 0:01:32.400 between the city and the rest of the world. There 0:01:32.400 --> 0:01:37.680 are dozens of flights every day. It was extremely highly 0:01:37.800 --> 0:01:40.880 likely that this is going to be a pandemic, and 0:01:41.040 --> 0:01:44.600 we started to discuss what we can do. The next morning, 0:01:44.760 --> 0:01:47.880 he turns to the person he trusts the most, his 0:01:47.960 --> 0:01:52.160 wife and fellow researcher with them too, Ritchy. She's the 0:01:52.200 --> 0:01:55.960 one who challenges his big ideas, forces him to hone 0:01:56.040 --> 0:01:59.560 his hypotheses. He spends about an hour showing her what 0:01:59.600 --> 0:02:03.120 hend on. They both know the best weapon to fight 0:02:03.200 --> 0:02:07.200 what's coming will be a vaccine. They've been testing a 0:02:07.200 --> 0:02:12.480 new technology using messenger RNA and experimental cancer therapy, and 0:02:12.520 --> 0:02:14.720 had done a lot of lab work on a potential 0:02:14.760 --> 0:02:19.560 flu vaccine, but neither they nor anybody else had ever 0:02:19.760 --> 0:02:26.560 used the technology in an approved medicine for humans. After that, 0:02:26.639 --> 0:02:30.440 it was not about discussing. It was about asking the question, 0:02:30.680 --> 0:02:34.280 how can we make this happen? If we really want 0:02:34.360 --> 0:02:38.120 to contribute and try to engineer a vaccine, how quick 0:02:38.240 --> 0:02:42.000 this work. They had never even done a patient trial 0:02:42.080 --> 0:02:47.000 in infectious diseases before, just lab experiments. Nobody knew whether 0:02:47.040 --> 0:02:49.880 it would work, but they were about to embark on 0:02:49.960 --> 0:02:53.720 an unprecedented race to find a vaccine against COVID nineteen. 0:02:55.880 --> 0:02:58.640 We decided to start a program because it was clear 0:02:58.680 --> 0:03:07.480 it was an obligation to do something. Welcome to the 0:03:07.560 --> 0:03:11.200 seventh episode of our series. In our last episode, we 0:03:11.280 --> 0:03:15.160 heard about how researchers Catalan Kariko and Drew Wiseman worked 0:03:15.160 --> 0:03:18.480 for decades and relative anonymity to lay the groundwork for 0:03:18.520 --> 0:03:23.440 getting m RNA into cells. With the pandemic, their work 0:03:23.480 --> 0:03:25.959 has a chance to make its way to patients far 0:03:26.120 --> 0:03:30.600 faster than what would have previously seemed possible. This time 0:03:31.000 --> 0:03:34.000 we're looking at the remarkable race to speed up development 0:03:34.040 --> 0:03:37.560 time of a COVID nineteen vaccine in the usual decade 0:03:37.640 --> 0:03:42.040 or so to a head spinning ten tranzied months. This 0:03:42.080 --> 0:03:45.000 is a story about the biggest scientific breakthrough with the 0:03:45.040 --> 0:03:51.080 pandemic mRNA vaccines. Now Suddenly, vaccines are the world's number 0:03:51.120 --> 0:03:55.520 one priority and the race to make them is on. Soon, 0:03:55.880 --> 0:03:59.920 hospitals and morgues will be filling up. Hundreds of thousands 0:04:00.040 --> 0:04:03.520 of people are about to die in cities around the globe. 0:04:04.160 --> 0:04:08.280 Every hour of every day is crucial as scientists race 0:04:08.400 --> 0:04:11.760 to do years of work and months. Whoever gets the 0:04:11.800 --> 0:04:14.760 finish line first, will make a name for themselves as 0:04:14.800 --> 0:04:18.479 science heroes, victors in a once in a century war 0:04:18.720 --> 0:04:22.040 with the killer virus. So many lives on the line, 0:04:22.680 --> 0:04:26.120 and for the drug companies billions of dollars in profits too. 0:04:27.560 --> 0:04:30.400 My name is Naomi Kraski and I'm a health reporter 0:04:30.520 --> 0:04:34.920 for Bloomberg News from the Prognosis podcast. This is Breakthrough, 0:04:53.800 --> 0:04:56.719 the story of the COVID vaccine race starts with a 0:04:56.760 --> 0:05:01.720 pair of young biotech companies. One is BioNTech, led by 0:05:01.920 --> 0:05:04.920 Or Shah and it slam too duchy when we just met. 0:05:05.520 --> 0:05:09.679 The other is Moderna, founded by Derrick Rossi, the stem 0:05:09.680 --> 0:05:12.960 cell researcher we met in our last episode, and led 0:05:13.000 --> 0:05:18.200 by a charismatic Frenchman. Needs to fund cell. Unlike BioNTech, 0:05:18.440 --> 0:05:21.320 which had mostly been a cancer company prior to the pandemic, 0:05:21.960 --> 0:05:24.480 Moderna was able to build on a lot of prior 0:05:24.560 --> 0:05:28.839 work and infectious disease. Here's to fund the CEO. We've 0:05:28.880 --> 0:05:32.120 been working on the mountain for ten years. We have 0:05:32.200 --> 0:05:36.200 been working on infectious disease of vaccine for most of 0:05:36.200 --> 0:05:40.520 those teneos. Moderna had started patient trials on nine other 0:05:40.600 --> 0:05:45.919 potential vaccines against other infectious diseases before this pandemic vaccine, 0:05:46.440 --> 0:05:48.559 so this was not new to us. We've been working 0:05:48.600 --> 0:05:53.040 on it a lot. In Moderna had started working with 0:05:53.080 --> 0:05:58.239 the US government to design vaccines. The project included mers 0:05:58.240 --> 0:06:01.640 A coronavirus that it hits out of Arabia and other countries, 0:06:02.440 --> 0:06:06.560 and the follows to fund. Briefed officials from the National 0:06:06.600 --> 0:06:10.880 Institute of Allergy and Infectious Disease known as NAIAD on 0:06:10.960 --> 0:06:14.479 a factory the company had built in Massachusetts. It could 0:06:14.520 --> 0:06:19.279 produce new vaccines in just sixty days. Steffun invited the 0:06:19.320 --> 0:06:24.200 government officials to tour the facility. Sensing some skepticism, he 0:06:24.320 --> 0:06:27.120 offered to do a test run for a hypothetical pandemic. 0:06:28.000 --> 0:06:31.560 The agency would send Moderna the genetic sequence for an 0:06:31.560 --> 0:06:35.400 emerging viral disease. Moderna would see how fast it could 0:06:35.440 --> 0:06:38.800 get a vaccine ready. The agency was about to pick 0:06:38.839 --> 0:06:42.160 a virus to use when along came stars Covey two. 0:06:43.040 --> 0:06:46.920 It was a perfect test case. So we were made 0:06:47.000 --> 0:06:51.080 aware of the virus between Christmas and New Year of 0:06:53.680 --> 0:06:56.520 We got the sequence from the Chinese government in our 0:06:56.600 --> 0:07:00.400 January the tenth put online. By the fifteen of anyway, 0:07:00.480 --> 0:07:05.279 we had the vaccine design lockdown on the computer, because 0:07:05.320 --> 0:07:09.920 all in Silico we never touched a physical virus. Here, 0:07:10.480 --> 0:07:13.320 it's helpful to step back for a minute and review 0:07:13.520 --> 0:07:19.160 what distinguishes mRNA vaccines from conventional shots. In the old 0:07:19.200 --> 0:07:23.559 way of doing things, vaccines introduced dead or weakened bits 0:07:23.560 --> 0:07:27.680 of virus into the body primarily immune system to recognize 0:07:27.720 --> 0:07:33.480 and destroy the real thing. Messenger RNA vaccines work differently. 0:07:34.760 --> 0:07:38.000 They contain a template that cells will use to make 0:07:38.080 --> 0:07:42.480 the bits of viral protein themselves, essentially turning the body's 0:07:42.520 --> 0:07:47.720 own cells into vaccine making factories. The differences also extend 0:07:47.800 --> 0:07:53.960 to manufacturing. Conventional vaccines are grown inside live cells. Some 0:07:54.200 --> 0:07:59.080 even use chicken eggs. Messenger RNA vaccines don't need any 0:07:59.120 --> 0:08:02.880 of that. Making them is a chemical process, a little 0:08:02.880 --> 0:08:06.600 bit like cooking. Makes the ingredients together and you get 0:08:06.600 --> 0:08:11.840 the vaccine. That may sound simple, but it isn't. Stefan 0:08:11.960 --> 0:08:15.120 told us that going from the theory to actual drugmaker 0:08:15.760 --> 0:08:18.200 seemed like a long shot when he quit his previous 0:08:18.280 --> 0:08:20.520 job joined Moderna. But if he's going to work, you 0:08:20.560 --> 0:08:25.960 would change medicine forever. Great pandemic. Bion tech had been 0:08:26.000 --> 0:08:30.320 mostly focusing on cancer one thing it's scientists were able 0:08:30.360 --> 0:08:33.160 to do in those early days was pull off the 0:08:33.280 --> 0:08:38.319 method for developing rapid personalized versions of m RNA vaccines 0:08:39.000 --> 0:08:43.400 based on cancer patients individual tumors. So we had the 0:08:43.480 --> 0:08:49.000 technology that we could use a vaccine platform to come 0:08:49.080 --> 0:08:51.000 up as a new vaccine was in a few weeks. 0:08:51.520 --> 0:08:55.239 This is another really important point about mr anda of vaccines. 0:08:55.760 --> 0:09:00.640 The technology itself took decades to refine, but within that framework, 0:09:00.920 --> 0:09:04.959 designing a vaccine to target a particular pathogen is actually 0:09:04.960 --> 0:09:09.080 really quick. Before mr and A vaccines came along, the 0:09:09.120 --> 0:09:13.480 fastest vaccine project ever was the n and Drug Company 0:09:13.480 --> 0:09:17.760 American co licensed to Shop for Moms. That took four years. 0:09:18.520 --> 0:09:22.400 The scientists who led the project, Maurice Hillman, swabbed his 0:09:22.480 --> 0:09:24.880 six five year old daughter's throat in order to get 0:09:24.920 --> 0:09:27.880 the lab specimen he needed to make the shot. With 0:09:28.040 --> 0:09:30.320 m r and A vaccines, you don't have to do 0:09:30.360 --> 0:09:34.680 anything like that. You don't need swab samples. All you 0:09:34.760 --> 0:09:38.520 need is the genetic code of the virus cattle and 0:09:38.600 --> 0:09:42.280 carry co. The pioneering researcher who left academia to work 0:09:42.280 --> 0:09:46.079 at BioNTech, says this and the event of the Internet 0:09:46.679 --> 0:09:50.640 gives researchers a leg up. You know you you are 0:09:50.720 --> 0:09:53.640 very young, so you don't remember, but how long it 0:09:53.760 --> 0:09:56.920 took like for HIV to set up the test to 0:09:57.000 --> 0:10:02.120 recognize this infected recognizing the I mean it took so 0:10:02.200 --> 0:10:07.520 long because the technology was not advanced in minds. We 0:10:07.640 --> 0:10:10.320 were an earths them get a slightly later start than 0:10:10.360 --> 0:10:14.400 their US rival. They have their kitchen table conversation about 0:10:14.400 --> 0:10:17.960 committing to a COVID vaccine a few weeks after MODERNA 0:10:18.000 --> 0:10:21.920 is already working on the vaccine design, but they start 0:10:21.960 --> 0:10:25.400 moving quickly. To the day after their decision to start 0:10:25.440 --> 0:10:28.280 work on a vaccine, we were calls a series of 0:10:28.400 --> 0:10:32.240 meetings with his manufacturing team, pre clinical testing team, and 0:10:32.320 --> 0:10:36.079 business development team. The crowd into his office in Mines. 0:10:37.040 --> 0:10:40.360 It's a simple room with the desk, conference table, some 0:10:40.400 --> 0:10:43.880 family pictures tacked onto a bulletin board. It's on the 0:10:43.880 --> 0:10:47.760 same hallway as the labs. He asks everyone to start 0:10:47.800 --> 0:10:50.760 planning how they can divert resources away from their other 0:10:50.800 --> 0:10:55.839 projects to a new full court press COVID vaccine push. 0:10:56.160 --> 0:10:59.360 On this Monday, I had five or six meetings with 0:10:59.480 --> 0:11:03.280 different and we had to day thereafter a board meeting 0:11:04.720 --> 0:11:09.760 to discuss how this can be supported by other board members. 0:11:09.920 --> 0:11:14.400 The same day, the first COVID case is confirmed in Germany. 0:11:14.960 --> 0:11:17.680 It's a thirty three year old man living near Munich. 0:11:18.520 --> 0:11:21.400 He works at an auto parts company. We had just 0:11:21.480 --> 0:11:23.680 been in a meeting led by a colleague who was 0:11:23.800 --> 0:11:28.360 visiting from China. We were assigned twenty five people to 0:11:28.480 --> 0:11:32.040 work on a potential vaccine, setting up shifts that run 0:11:32.120 --> 0:11:37.880 through evenings and weekends. It's basically seven operation. We had 0:11:37.920 --> 0:11:41.200 to reduce the timelines. We tried to figure out how 0:11:41.280 --> 0:11:45.080 to do that, and in principle we came up as 0:11:45.120 --> 0:11:50.079 a number of really innovative strategies. One was doing things 0:11:50.120 --> 0:11:55.240 in parallel instead of doing it sequentially. It's a risky 0:11:55.280 --> 0:11:59.720 of a time saving decision. Usually companies don't prepare for 0:11:59.760 --> 0:12:02.160 a pay Asian trial until they have a potential drug 0:12:02.200 --> 0:12:06.120 to test. But Uger's teams start working on getting trials 0:12:06.160 --> 0:12:09.240 ready to go already. They figure they can add the 0:12:09.280 --> 0:12:12.160 details about the vaccine that's going to be used once 0:12:12.200 --> 0:12:16.400 they have it, they start making multiple candidates. You need 0:12:16.440 --> 0:12:19.480 to do a lot of detailed paperwork before you can 0:12:19.520 --> 0:12:23.520 test any kind of drug on people. So Uger also 0:12:23.559 --> 0:12:27.280 gets in touch with German clinical trial authorities. He knows 0:12:27.320 --> 0:12:30.160 them well because of bion texts work with cancer vaccines. 0:12:30.760 --> 0:12:33.880 He asked them for a meeting. Usually it takes three 0:12:33.920 --> 0:12:38.120 months to get a meeting date. So I called them 0:12:38.120 --> 0:12:41.600 and asked if we could come up just just data 0:12:41.679 --> 0:12:46.439 day and and they said, first of all, prepare a 0:12:46.480 --> 0:12:50.439 briefing book and if you've managed that, you can come 0:12:50.559 --> 0:12:54.760 next week. So Uger's team works night and day to 0:12:54.880 --> 0:12:59.040 write an ad page document describing there would be COVID 0:12:59.120 --> 0:13:04.400 vaccine project. They agreed to our plan. The only only 0:13:04.520 --> 0:13:08.280 challenge for us. They wanted to see a toxicology try. 0:13:08.880 --> 0:13:12.880 It usually takes six months, and we wanted to start 0:13:12.880 --> 0:13:18.200 in April. Yeah, so will be the beginning fable Abby 0:13:18.600 --> 0:13:21.760 and they they quested to have a talk study and 0:13:21.800 --> 0:13:23.800 they had to figure out how to do the talk 0:13:24.800 --> 0:13:29.120 in in less than less than three months. And the 0:13:29.160 --> 0:13:32.000 teams you get that out. Moderna is also doing things 0:13:32.080 --> 0:13:35.320 in parallel, setting up the next steps for bigger trials 0:13:35.360 --> 0:13:40.880 before the early ones are done. By February forty two 0:13:40.960 --> 0:13:44.600 days after it started, the company ships the first batch 0:13:44.640 --> 0:13:48.320 of vaccine to NAIAD. Remember that's the National Institute of 0:13:48.360 --> 0:13:52.600 allergy and infectious disease. Like BioNTech, they are relying on 0:13:52.679 --> 0:13:57.240 close partnership with regulators. Unlike BioNTech, they have a direct 0:13:57.320 --> 0:14:01.240 government partnership. The National Institutes of Health is the co 0:14:01.320 --> 0:14:04.960 developer of the vaccine. The Food and Drug Administration is 0:14:05.000 --> 0:14:07.840 taking their calls at all hours of the night into 0:14:07.880 --> 0:14:13.280 the weekend. Stefan says, I think one of the hero 0:14:13.520 --> 0:14:18.199 of this remarkable SENSEFIC achievement of twenty is vf D 0:14:19.800 --> 0:14:24.520 because you know, usually through the process is set up 0:14:24.520 --> 0:14:28.000 by the agency. You know it would sometimes take months 0:14:28.040 --> 0:14:31.400 to get an answer to a question. Well, here we 0:14:31.480 --> 0:14:38.040 had answers on questions seven with the NIH to help them. Well, 0:14:38.080 --> 0:14:42.800 Darrena moves forward without a big farm a partner for 0:14:42.960 --> 0:14:47.440 BioNTech in Germany, that's not the case we're in Aslam. No, 0:14:47.600 --> 0:14:50.680 they can't run the huge clinical trials needed for approval 0:14:50.720 --> 0:14:53.280 on their own. Neither do they have the kind of 0:14:53.320 --> 0:14:56.480 global distribution you need the ship of vaccine all around 0:14:56.480 --> 0:15:00.600 the world to succeed. They need a sponsor with deep 0:15:00.640 --> 0:15:05.960 pockets who picks up the phone and calls his contact advisor. 0:15:06.240 --> 0:15:10.200 The drugs behemoth based in New York. The companies had 0:15:10.240 --> 0:15:13.320 already made a deal in to work together on an 0:15:13.440 --> 0:15:17.520 m R and a flu vaccine. Phil Dormantzer, chief scientific 0:15:17.560 --> 0:15:22.600 officer for Viral Vaccines Advisor, remembers that call who are 0:15:22.600 --> 0:15:25.320 wanted to transfer people who are working on flu to 0:15:25.440 --> 0:15:29.840 the new virus really just swapping out the influenza and 0:15:29.920 --> 0:15:33.160 engine coding sequences and swapping in the stars COVID to 0:15:33.480 --> 0:15:38.240 ANDREW coding sequences, because we like to be really out 0:15:38.280 --> 0:15:44.480 in front of this new disease that's broken out in Wuhan, China. 0:15:45.320 --> 0:15:48.720 Remember when I said vaccine makers no longer needed live 0:15:48.800 --> 0:15:52.640 cells or swabbed samples to build vaccines, but that all 0:15:52.680 --> 0:15:55.800 you need is the genetic code of the virus. That's 0:15:55.800 --> 0:15:58.680 what Phil is talking about here, and this is a 0:15:58.720 --> 0:16:02.320 big deal. Ion Tech might not have had ongoing human 0:16:02.320 --> 0:16:05.720 trials with infectious disease vaccines, but they were already working 0:16:05.720 --> 0:16:09.280 in the area. Paddlan explains how far along the flu 0:16:09.360 --> 0:16:14.920 work already was. We were advancing those studies. Animals studies, 0:16:14.920 --> 0:16:17.840 monkey studies were finished, and we were just there to 0:16:18.200 --> 0:16:22.520 request the authorities work for the permission all of the sudden. 0:16:22.560 --> 0:16:26.160 Instead of influence, so we switched over to to Corona. 0:16:26.560 --> 0:16:29.560 By March two, they have twenty vaccine candidates that could 0:16:29.560 --> 0:16:32.800 spur a strong immune response against the virus, and lab 0:16:32.880 --> 0:16:38.680 animals and cell culture experiments. That day, Uber calls Katrin Jansen, 0:16:39.160 --> 0:16:42.560 visors had a vaccine research and development and Phil spots 0:16:42.880 --> 0:16:46.320 it doesn't take long to convince her. I remember there 0:16:46.320 --> 0:16:49.920 was a call on which Uger and Katherine Jansen, who 0:16:50.000 --> 0:16:53.920 who leads vaccine research and development advisor UM and I 0:16:53.960 --> 0:16:57.480 spoke about this and they said, well the work plan. 0:16:58.360 --> 0:17:02.240 So I'll literally get him overnight typed up a work plan. 0:17:02.360 --> 0:17:04.920 What are the things that we would do. The plan 0:17:05.280 --> 0:17:10.800 goes to Albert Berla, visor CEO. Albert basically said we 0:17:11.040 --> 0:17:13.880 are going all in on this, that this is clearly 0:17:14.720 --> 0:17:18.760 an emergency. Albert said, in this circumstance, we need to 0:17:18.840 --> 0:17:22.320 divert resources and do whatever is needed to bring the 0:17:22.400 --> 0:17:27.840 vaccine forward. So his expectations of timelines were far faster 0:17:28.119 --> 0:17:32.920 than anything that that that we would have imagine before. Meanwhile, 0:17:33.080 --> 0:17:36.320 the FDA signs off on Moderna's plans for a trial 0:17:36.520 --> 0:17:41.880 in humans. Stefan's team injects its first volunteers on March sixteen. 0:17:42.920 --> 0:17:47.679 About a month later, on April Bion second Fiser start 0:17:47.720 --> 0:17:51.520 their human trial in Germany. Less than two weeks after that, 0:17:52.080 --> 0:17:55.240 a US trial begins. I think we were the only 0:17:55.320 --> 0:18:01.440 company which really started was all ever having ever tested 0:18:01.480 --> 0:18:06.800 their their platform in infectas disease. And we've also the 0:18:06.840 --> 0:18:12.760 only company which tested multiple candidates in pavalum Ugar is 0:18:12.840 --> 0:18:17.600 talking about shoehorning in one more science experiment, he wants 0:18:17.600 --> 0:18:21.000 to test four different potential vaccines in the first human 0:18:21.040 --> 0:18:25.359 study to see which one is the best. It's risky 0:18:25.560 --> 0:18:28.760 because it could delay development. Well, Darren has already picked 0:18:28.800 --> 0:18:32.560 the full spike for its vaccine, but UGO wants to 0:18:32.560 --> 0:18:35.720 try to optimize their shot as much as possible before 0:18:35.720 --> 0:18:38.879 they give it to thousands of people. The question is 0:18:38.920 --> 0:18:41.560 whether to make a vaccine based on only a piece 0:18:41.600 --> 0:18:45.280 of the virus is spike or the whole thing. Picking 0:18:45.320 --> 0:18:47.680 the right bit of the protein for the vaccine could 0:18:47.720 --> 0:18:50.480 potentially make a big difference in how well it works. 0:18:51.200 --> 0:18:53.920 And you could find in the literature arguments for both 0:18:54.280 --> 0:18:58.840 and against both. And so we said, let's test both 0:18:59.359 --> 0:19:03.600 and get the clinical data, get the preclinical data, and 0:19:03.680 --> 0:19:08.240 then get the answers. In July, both Moderna and the 0:19:08.280 --> 0:19:13.040 Fiser BioNTech team announced early data showing their vaccines can 0:19:13.160 --> 0:19:18.159 produce antibodies in people. Biontechs first data is for the 0:19:18.240 --> 0:19:20.760 version of the vaccine that made only one part of 0:19:20.840 --> 0:19:25.720 the spike protein, something called the RBD domain. It's good data. 0:19:25.920 --> 0:19:29.600 The clock is ticking. Some people want to move forward 0:19:29.640 --> 0:19:32.320 with that version of the shot right away. We had 0:19:32.359 --> 0:19:36.080 a lot of pressure from the clinical teams just to 0:19:36.160 --> 0:19:40.159 go ahead domain it teams to insist on waiting for 0:19:40.200 --> 0:19:42.800 the data from the full spike to see whether it 0:19:42.880 --> 0:19:46.040 might wind up making a safer or more effective vaccine. 0:19:46.760 --> 0:19:49.840 They have to move fast. While the pandemic has ebbed 0:19:49.840 --> 0:19:52.760 in some places like Germany, the US is in the 0:19:52.800 --> 0:19:55.600 middle of a summer surge about to hit a hundred 0:19:55.640 --> 0:19:59.720 and fifty COVID deaths. Experts warned that another wave will 0:19:59.720 --> 0:20:02.959 probably come in the fall. They rush blood samples from 0:20:03.040 --> 0:20:07.200 volunteers to labs in Germany and the US. The safety 0:20:07.280 --> 0:20:10.320 data shows that the full spike vaccine is even better 0:20:10.359 --> 0:20:13.800 than the partial spike. It might cause fewer side effects, 0:20:14.320 --> 0:20:18.400 gives a better immune response to so on July they 0:20:18.440 --> 0:20:22.400 decide to go with that one. Remarkably, three days later, 0:20:22.680 --> 0:20:28.480 on July, both Moderna and Fizer BioNTech start the huge 0:20:28.480 --> 0:20:33.560 clinical trials necessary to win regulatory approval. There are tens 0:20:33.640 --> 0:20:38.080 of thousands of volunteers. Their real life experience will show 0:20:38.680 --> 0:20:42.040 whether the vaccines can work outside the confines of a lab, 0:20:42.920 --> 0:20:45.560 whether they can make a dent against the virus in 0:20:45.640 --> 0:21:01.280 real life. That summer, Moderna also get one billion dollars 0:21:01.280 --> 0:21:05.679 in funding from Operation Warp Speed, the Trump Administration's effort 0:21:05.720 --> 0:21:10.560 to hurry along vaccine development. The money is allocated via BARDA, 0:21:10.640 --> 0:21:14.159 the Biochemical Advanced Research and Development Authority. I think this 0:21:14.280 --> 0:21:18.520 is one story that is not talked about enough, is 0:21:19.240 --> 0:21:23.600 what Balda and then Operation vout Speed did by you know, 0:21:23.640 --> 0:21:30.080 sponsoring six companies, giving us the financial resources to take 0:21:30.119 --> 0:21:34.640 a lot of business risk. Eiser doesn't take US government funding, 0:21:34.960 --> 0:21:39.280 although the partners signed a one nine billion dollar contract 0:21:39.400 --> 0:21:42.560 to sell one hundred million doses to the US government 0:21:42.800 --> 0:21:46.200 if the show works, that's its own form of security. 0:21:47.080 --> 0:21:50.040 Moderna has its own deal for one hundred million doses 0:21:50.240 --> 0:21:54.840 for about one point five billion, and BioNTech takes German 0:21:54.880 --> 0:21:59.000 government funds. They need the money to build a factory. 0:21:59.119 --> 0:22:01.879 They've never had to new factor for millions of people before. 0:22:02.640 --> 0:22:05.960 They searched Germany and find an old novartist vaccine factory 0:22:05.960 --> 0:22:09.240 in Marburg, close to Frankfurt. They close on the site 0:22:09.240 --> 0:22:12.159 in the fall and work on retrofitting it for m 0:22:12.200 --> 0:22:17.119 R and A manufacturing. But there's a problem with making 0:22:17.119 --> 0:22:21.600 a key part of vaccine. Or and Katherine Jansen talked 0:22:21.600 --> 0:22:25.080 about this earlier this year at a conference hosted by 0:22:25.119 --> 0:22:29.920 healthy website stat Yes that that was indeed the low points, 0:22:30.000 --> 0:22:32.639 so we had an effect the vaccine. We wanted to 0:22:32.640 --> 0:22:35.639 to produce one hundred million doses and then it turned 0:22:35.680 --> 0:22:40.960 out that's one off the components did not work as 0:22:41.000 --> 0:22:46.680 as expected. The problem was with lipid nanoparticles. These are 0:22:46.720 --> 0:22:50.040 tiny bubbles of that that worked like a protective coating 0:22:50.240 --> 0:22:54.320 for the vaccine. They keep the body's enzymes from destroying 0:22:54.359 --> 0:22:57.120 it before it can make its way to a cell. 0:22:58.680 --> 0:23:01.560 The lipid issue that we faced at one time, that's 0:23:01.560 --> 0:23:04.080 through a real monkey wench, and it's so not only 0:23:04.119 --> 0:23:07.600 did we have to keep the program on track, we 0:23:07.680 --> 0:23:11.159 had to have a significant number of our colleagues, you know, 0:23:11.280 --> 0:23:14.119 working through it and trying to understand it. It originally 0:23:14.160 --> 0:23:16.280 said that if the vaccine worked, it could make a 0:23:16.320 --> 0:23:21.280 hundred million doses. Because of the manufacturing issues, they had 0:23:21.320 --> 0:23:25.679 to scale that back to fifty million doses. Well, we 0:23:25.800 --> 0:23:29.959 faced enormous challenges like in in every in every development 0:23:30.000 --> 0:23:33.720 program and vaccine development program, you have enormous challenges and 0:23:33.760 --> 0:23:38.280 the difference why we usually those challenges of COVID ten years, Yeah, 0:23:38.320 --> 0:23:44.320 the same challenges a nine months. By this point, they're 0:23:44.320 --> 0:23:48.240 working NonStop to solve the manufacturing problems. But the biggest 0:23:48.320 --> 0:23:52.400 question is still open, just how well does the vaccine work. 0:23:53.520 --> 0:23:56.159 The answer will come in the huge study that Fiser 0:23:56.280 --> 0:24:01.080 is running. They've expanded. It's more than forty patient people 0:24:01.280 --> 0:24:03.680 all around the world who have volunteered to get two 0:24:03.680 --> 0:24:06.439 shots in the arm without knowing whether what's in the 0:24:06.520 --> 0:24:10.240 syringe is a vaccine or just a placebo. Then they'll 0:24:10.240 --> 0:24:13.240 go out and live their lives and see whether they 0:24:13.240 --> 0:24:16.600 catch COVID. If they get symptoms, the test will show 0:24:16.640 --> 0:24:20.680 whether it's the virus. The researchers themselves also don't know 0:24:20.800 --> 0:24:24.040 who got the vaccine and who didn't. It's just a 0:24:24.080 --> 0:24:28.080 matter of time waiting to see how many people get sick. 0:24:29.040 --> 0:24:33.280 And all around the COVID pandemic is getting worse. The 0:24:33.359 --> 0:24:38.199 second wave is happening Europe heads back into lockdown. In 0:24:38.240 --> 0:24:42.520 the US, the death toll hits two thousand people in September. 0:24:43.320 --> 0:24:48.160 In only two months, another fifty people die. How we're 0:24:48.200 --> 0:24:51.119 not in a good place for a couple of reasons. 0:24:51.640 --> 0:24:55.200 Cases surging in nearly every state, more than two new 0:24:55.240 --> 0:24:59.360 cases in just twenty four hours in this country, alas 0:24:59.480 --> 0:25:02.880 as a cruel much of Europe, the virus is spreading 0:25:03.359 --> 0:25:08.600 even faster than the reasonable worst case scenario of our 0:25:08.640 --> 0:25:18.880 scientific advisors. It's Sunday in November eight, almost ten months 0:25:18.920 --> 0:25:22.000 after the Sunday morning when it's them and UGO had 0:25:22.040 --> 0:25:25.040 talked about whether to tear up their company plan and 0:25:25.119 --> 0:25:29.000 chase after a COVID vaccine. They're waiting in their apartment 0:25:29.200 --> 0:25:33.359 for five or CEO Albert Burla to call. They're on edge. 0:25:34.160 --> 0:25:37.280 They've heard that the independent panel of experts that's monitoring 0:25:37.320 --> 0:25:41.479 the trial is reviewing the results. They're expecting the panel's 0:25:41.560 --> 0:25:45.879 predict at any moment. We both are very tense. The 0:25:46.119 --> 0:25:49.639 entire day. There was still the scenario that would be 0:25:50.000 --> 0:25:56.160 oh THEO at all. Yeah, and remember that that understood 0:25:56.200 --> 0:26:00.040 that I I was worried, and he said, you know, 0:26:00.560 --> 0:26:05.520 it does not matter what we hear later today, it 0:26:05.640 --> 0:26:09.160 might well be that does not look good, but anyway, 0:26:09.280 --> 0:26:11.480 it was worth it and it was of a moral 0:26:11.520 --> 0:26:15.359 obligation to at least try it. Finally, at eight p m. 0:26:15.560 --> 0:26:19.000 The phone rings. Albert is on the line. They put 0:26:19.080 --> 0:26:21.600 him on speaker. He said, do you want to know 0:26:21.720 --> 0:26:28.000 the Lisa, and I said no. I realized already from 0:26:28.119 --> 0:26:32.440 his voice that there would be a positive a message, 0:26:32.800 --> 0:26:35.520 but neither of them were prepared for just how good 0:26:35.760 --> 0:26:39.440 the results would be. Ure told me he was expecting 0:26:39.480 --> 0:26:44.320 efficacy in the range of against the virus. They have 0:26:44.480 --> 0:26:47.159 to hit at least fifty for the vaccine to be 0:26:47.200 --> 0:26:51.480 considered viable for the market. What they get is well 0:26:51.520 --> 0:26:56.840 above nine. This was incredible. Yeah, this was just wave 0:26:57.760 --> 0:27:03.160 taking and that in this moment he understood, Hey, days, 0:27:03.200 --> 0:27:06.960 a vaccine for mankind and corna is is a problem 0:27:07.040 --> 0:27:13.240 that can be solved. Across the Atlantic, Phil Dormantzer is 0:27:13.280 --> 0:27:16.560 sitting in his apartment close to find SoRs office when 0:27:16.560 --> 0:27:19.720 he gets a similar call. He's sitting in the small 0:27:19.800 --> 0:27:23.160 room where he does his work. Zoom calls and because 0:27:23.160 --> 0:27:26.920 there's an embargo on this information, nobody can know because 0:27:26.960 --> 0:27:30.320 nobody is supposed to trade on the announcement. His lips 0:27:30.320 --> 0:27:33.439 are sealed. Once I found out, I couldn't tell anyone. 0:27:33.480 --> 0:27:37.120 I mean, this was this was highly confidential material information 0:27:37.200 --> 0:27:40.200 until it was announced publicly. I couldn't tell my wife, 0:27:40.240 --> 0:27:43.199 I couldn't tell anybody. So so it was. It was 0:27:43.440 --> 0:27:47.639 actually a quiet moment. He has to keep quiet for 0:27:47.760 --> 0:27:52.000 less than a day. On Monday, November nine, at six 0:27:52.640 --> 0:27:56.239 am in New York, Visor and BioNTech send out their 0:27:56.280 --> 0:27:59.920 press releases and break the news to the world. Trials 0:28:00.040 --> 0:28:02.800