Nordic Life Science 1
NORDIC LIFE SCIENCE EDITOR IN CHIEF: MALIN OTMANI
ART DIRECTOR: ANNIKI SKEIDSVOLL EDÉN REPORTERS: ELLEN R. DELISIO, ANNELI HIDALGO ENGLISH PROOFREADING: GAIL ADAM REPRO: LENA HOXTER COVER PHOTO: BERNHARD LUDEWIG PRINTED BY: ÅTTA.45 2021 PUBLISHING DIRECTOR: MATTIAS OLME PRODUCT MANAGER: ADAM RÅSBERG MARKETING & SALES: ANDRES VARGAS ANDRES@NORDICLIFESCIENCE.ORG +46 8 588 941 56 COPYRIGHT 2021 BY MEDIAVALUE ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. REPRODUCTION IN WHOLE OR IN PART WHITHOUT PERMISSION IS PROHIBITED. A MAGAZINE FROM MEDIAVALUE MV INFORMATION AB, KINDSTUGATAN 1 111 31 STOCKHOLM, SWEDEN PHONE: +46 8 588 941 51 SUBSCRIPTION: ONE YEAR PRINT AND ONLINE SUBSCRIPTION: 1 990 SEK / 199 EUR / 219 USD 01. FOUR PRINTED ISSUES OF THE BUSINESS MAGAZINE 02. ALL ISSUES ONLINE, READABLE ON YOUR PREFERRED DEVICE 03. WEEKLY NEWS UPDATES FROM OUR NEWSLETTER NORDIC LIFE SCIENCE NEWS CALL: +46 8 588 941 52 OR SIGN UP AT: NORDICLIFESCIENCE.ORG the global life science industry has been able to discover and develop three vaccines approved for full use, seven vaccines approved for early or limited use, and 20 vaccines that are currently in large-scale efficacy tests (Phase 3), according to statistics from the New York Times released on February 3rd 2021. Having a vaccine ready usually takes ten years, marking this achievement as a truly remarkable and fantastic one. This rapid development and global mobilization will also hopefully accelerate development in other areas of need, such hepatitis C. The discovery of the hepatitis C virus was awarded with the 2020 Nobel Prize in Medicine and in our interview with Michael Houghton, one of the three Laureates, he emphasized the importance of applying the COVID-19 vaccine strategy to other infections. Hopefully the development lessons we have learned recently will provide scientists with new approaches to be used against HCV and eventually find an effective hepatitis C vaccine. COVID-19 vaccination has now begun in some parts of the world, thanks to these efforts, and now we are facing the next big challenge: producing and distributing the vaccines to a global population of around seven billion people. First of all, the technology infrastructure and necessary equipment must be in place to ramp up production, and there must also be capacities to meet temperature-sensitive needs. Speed is of the essence and educated and trained personnel for manufacturing are also needed. Then comes the next critical link in the supply chain; securing transportation. Our vaccine makers and manufacturers believe they will be able to deliver vaccine doses to a third of the world’s population by the end of 2021. Many countries, however, primarily the development countries, will probably not have a vaccine until 2024, according to calculations by the Duke Global Health Innovation Centre in the US. Efforts including the WHO COVAX project, working for a global equitable access to COVID-19 vaccines and with the goal of vaccinating at least 20% of low income populations during 2021, will be critical for a fair distribution. Rich countries and governmental institutes need to provide financing. PARTNERS: An important lesson from this pandemic is that we need to stockpile vaccines, and defray the costs for this. For example, if SARS vaccines had been stockpiled in 2003, we could have used that to stop a major part of the spread of COVID. However, stockpiling COVID-19 vaccines during the pandemic to benefit a single country is something that has to be prevented, some countries have purchased so many vaccines that they can vaccinate their populations five times, while many development countries will be able to vaccinate only 10% of their populations. To secure equal access, both pharma companies and governments need to take a stand in this matter. MALIN OTMANI EDITOR IN CHIEF FOR DAILY UPDATES OF THE NORDIC LIFE SCIENCE INDUSTRY, VISIT: NORDICLIFESCIENCE.ORG.