The COVID-19 pandemic has had a significant impact on the biopharma industry. From artificial intelligence breakthroughs to at-home genetic testing, BioSpace reviews some of the ways COVID-19 has changed the industry and what we may see in the near future. 

The success of vaccines against COVID-19 has become a cash cow for Moderna, the Pfizer and BioNTech team, and Johnson & Johnson. Moderna, Pfizer, and J&J earned combined revenue of $31 billion from their COVID-19 vaccines in 2021.

BioNTech and Medigene announced a global agreement to develop T-cell immunotherapies against cancer. The three-year collaboration will focus on multiple solid tumor targets. 

At least one model from the University of Washington’s Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation estimates that at this time, 73 percent of Americans are immune to Omicron, and it could rise to 80 percent by mid-March.

BioNTech’s co-founder and top executive said the vaccine maker has no plans to enforce its intellectual property rights should organizations in Africa strike out on their own to produce unauthorized versions of the company’s shot.

Comirnaty

The world’s leading COVID-19 vaccine and therapeutic manufacturers continue to develop treatments for the waves of variants as well as life-changing therapies for disease areas outside the world of coronaviruses. The world’s efforts to combat the global pandemic continue to evolve, as does Coronavirus Disease 2019 as variants and subvariants constantly toss volleys of grenades at the battlefront lines.

BioNTech

BioNTech said the company and partner Pfizer may not be able to stick with their plan to launch an Omicron-targeting vaccine by the end of March 2022, depending on how much clinical trial data regulators will require.

Pfizer released data from several studies showing that nirmatrelvir, the active main protease inhibitor of the company’s antiviral combination therapy Paxlovid (nirmatrelvir/ritonavir), is effective against the Omicron variant of SARS-CoV-2. Additionally, a study conducted by 23andMe and published in Nature Genetics identified a genetic risk factor tied to the loss of smell from COVID-19.

BioNTech

BioNTech said the German COVID-19 vaccine maker developed a method to quickly determine whether a new virus variant is a cause for concern, collaborating with British artificial intelligence startup InstaDeep Ltd.

The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) appears unprepared to assume full responsibility for the nation’s Covid-19 vaccine program, including activities currently managed by the Pentagon, according to a draft government watchdog report reviewed by Reuters.