Development of vaccines and tests for SARS-CoV-2

4. International collaboration

This rapid development of different vaccines is an extraordinary achievement that was made possible by an unparalleled international collaboration on all levels. Research-based companies had already gathered initial experience of dealing with coronaviruses with SARS-CoV-1 in the early 2000s – and MERS in 2012. As a consequence, the genetic code of the virus in the Covid-19 pandemic was deciphered early on. On the basis of the information available, various companies were able to begin work on the development of a vaccine. The collaboration between academic institutions and the pharmaceutical industry also served to accelerate vaccine development.

AstraZeneca, for example, developed a vector vaccine together with the University of Oxford. Successful cooperation between companies also had an impact: Pfizer developed an mRNA vaccine in collaboration with the German biotech company BioNTech. Johnson & Johnson developed a DNA vaccine using vectors in collaboration with its subsidiary company Janssen and its vaccines site in Bern. This vaccine, too, involves a new technology, which has already proved successful in vaccination against Ebola. With Lonza as a new production partner, Moderna was able to achieve a tenfold increase in the production capacity for its vaccines. As a result of this cooperation, Lonza in turn its expanding its facilities in Visp (VS).