In the race for a Covid-19 vaccine, slow starters could still win out

(MARIA FABRIZIO FOR STAT)

The vaccines from Moderna, AstraZeneca-Oxford, and Pfizer-BioNTech may be leading the race to a Covid-19 vaccine right now, but as the classic Aesop fable of the hare and the tortoise showed us, the slower companies may very well win the race. Merck and Sanofi are currently trailing the other three teams as well middle-of-the-pack Novavax, but the deep vaccine development experience held by Merck and Sanofi could mean that they quickly make up any gaps in the coming months, experts say. Moderna, for instance, has never brought a vaccine through the licensure process even as it attempts to do so now with a high-stakes Covid-19 vaccine. “Would you rather have … a company that has done scaled-up manufacturing under strict regulations and has substantial muscle memory of doing that?” one vaccine expert shares with STAT's Helen Branswell. Read more.