Inside STAT: For its Covid-19 vaccine, Pfizer turns to a scientist who has gotten results

(ALEX HOGAN/STAT, PHOTO: PFIZER)

Pharma giant Pfizer is one of the two companies that were the first to launch large clinical trials of potential Covid-19 vaccines, and it's pinning its hopes on its vaccine head Kathrin Jansen to help beat out its closest competitor, the biotech upstart Moderna. Pfizer's lead on vaccine research development, Jansen previously oversaw the work that led to the world's two best-selling vaccines, against HPV and pneumococcus. And since March this year, Jansen has been at the helm of a team working round-the-clock to come up with a Covid-19 vaccine. Despite Jansen's claim that she tries to "stay out of the way" of the work being done in labs, colleagues laud her experience, with one saying, “She is really a hard-nosed scholar of vaccine development.” STAT Plus subscribers can read more here in an exclusive from STAT's Matthew Herper.