Business Wars

It’s early January 2020, and a mysterious new virus is overtaking the city of Wuhan, China. At first the outbreak barely makes the news, but as the threat comes into focus, scientists spring into action to make a vaccine. But the outlook’s grim – vaccines take years to create, test and approve. No one expects one to arrive anytime soon. But for two ambitious biotech start-ups, this is a chance to show the world what their cutting-edge tech can do.

It’s 25 years before the pandemic and at the University of Pennsylvania a Hungarian biochemist is fighting a one-woman campaign to figure out how to create mRNA vaccines. But no one wants to fund her research and every lab rat she injects with mRNA dies. Now, she must decide between her career and her belief in mRNA’s medical potential. And her choice will change the world.

It’s February 2020 and drugmaker Moderna’s sprinting ahead – its Covid vaccine is already poised to enter human trials. But Moderna and its rivals know plenty of vaccines never make it out of trials alive. It’s also going to take a lot of manufacturing muscle to inoculate the world. All of which costs a lot of moolah. And if the vaccine makers can’t secure a deep-pocketed partner in time, they’re going to get disqualified from the race.

It’s summer 2020 and with Covid infections surging across America, the Trump administration’s ready to spend billions to get a vaccine fast. For vaccine makers — who face the enormous costs of rapidly upscaling manufacturing and pushing their shots through large-scale human trials — the government funding is a lifeline. But as the push to create vaccines hits warp speed, there’s a growing need to reassure the public that science, not politics, is in the driver’s seat.

It’s fall 2020 and the world’s waiting for the first results from the vaccine trials.But as the moment of truth nears, the pressure on the vaccine makers intensifies.And while AstraZeneca and Johnson & Johnson get hit with curveballs, Pfizer finds itself caught in the crossfire of the U.S. Presidential election.

It’s late 2020 and the first vaccines are going into arms across the world. With supplies tight, the nations of the world are pushing and shoving to get their shots, and investors are salivating at the thought of the profits to be made now that humanity’s got Covid’s on the run. But this virus isn’t going down without a fight. And in South Africa, one geneticist is about to make an alarming discovery.

BioNTech, Moderna, Johnson & Johnson, AstraZeneca. These companies are now household names thanks to their COVID-19 vaccines. The gambles these businesses took are paying off. The pharmaceutical giants are in line to profit heavily from their life-saving work, but the system of distributing the vaccines has seen its fair share of hiccups and controversy. We spoke to Annalisa Merelli, a healthcare reporter for Quartz about the pandemic, the economic effects of the vaccine rollout and the current surge in COVID cases in India.