Moderna CEO Stephane Bancel. Andrew Harnik/AP Images
Moderna CEO Stephane Bancel told Business Insider that a coronavirus vaccine will available to any American adult who wants one by June.
The upstart Massachusetts biotech company said Monday that its experimental vaccine was highly effective at preventing COVID-19 in a late-stage study.
Bancel shared his prediction for how the next year plays out as vaccines are distributed, including a return to normal in summer 2021 for the US.
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A coronavirus vaccine will be widely available in the US to any adult who wants it by the start of summer, Moderna CEO Stephane Bancel predicted Sunday.
“What I believe is that by Memorial Day, in the US, anybody who wants a vaccine will get a safe and efficacious vaccine,” Bancel said in an interview with Business Insider. Memorial Day, the US holiday that marks the unofficial start of summer, takes place on May 31 next year.
The upstart Massachusetts biotech said Monday its vaccine candidate was highly effective at preventing COVID-19. Last Monday, the pharmaceutical giant Pfizer and its German partner BioNTech also announced success with their shot.
Bancel said that his timeline is based on the manufacturing capacity of Pfizer and Moderna.
“Even if no other vaccines were going to make it, as a worst-case scenario, I think by Memorial Day, end of June, any Americans who want a vaccine will have their hands on a vaccine,” he said.
A return to normal
Looking further down the line, Bancel said he envisions a return to normal in summer 2021. Some of the nation’s top public-health authorities have put out more aggressive timelines. The nation’s top infectious-disease expert, Dr. Anthony Fauci, and Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar have both said a coronavirus vaccine will be widely available by April 2021.
Fauci said on Sunday that the US could be back to ‘relative normal’ by the second or third quarter of next year, if most people are willing to take a coronavirus vaccine.
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While Moderna’s vaccine has so far only been tested in adults, the company is planning to expand its trials into adolescents. Bancel said he hopes the vaccine could be approved to be given to teenagers next summer, and teens could get vaccinated in July and August.
“September 2021 is back-to-school normal,” Bancel said. “People can go shopping, get their gear and their backpacks, and go back to school with no mask. And go back to what we all feel is normal life.”
Doses will be extremely limited over the next few months
Bancel’s timeline still leaves a little less than 200 days until Memorial Day and nearly 300 days until September. With the pandemic now surging across the US, with rising levels of infections, hospitalizations, and deaths, Bancel stressed that now is the time to wear masks and socially distance.
For the near-term timeline, Moderna and Pfizer both plan to apply for emergency use authorization (EUA) with US regulators before the end of November. The US Food and Drug Administration’s review process will likely take weeks.
“Potentially in December you could get both vaccines approved by the FDA under EUA,” Bancel said.
Moncef Slaoui, the chief advisor for the US government’s Operation Warp Speed, recently predicted that 20 million Americans could be immunized in December if both shots are approved.
Entering 2021, both companies plan to rapidly ramp up manufacturing. Bancel said he expects doses will be prioritized through January, February, and March for people at high risk, such as the elderly and people with comorbidities.
He estimated Moderna will have made 100 million doses — enough to vaccinate 50 million people — by the end of the first quarter of 2021.
“Q1 is going to feel still not fun, because not everybody will get their hands on the vaccine,” Bancel said.
Read the original article on Business Insider
