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A third Covid-19 vaccine could be authorized in the U.S. as early as Saturday. More on that below. Pfizer's and Moderna's vaccines are already among the top-selling drugs of all time. Meg Tirrell breaks down the numbers for us. And health experts are urging governments to resist calls to issue so-called "vaccine passports."
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| | Key FDA panel votes on J&J's vaccine today | The FDA's Vaccines and Related Biological Products Advisory Committee is voting Friday on whether to recommend approval of J&J's one-shot Covid-19 vaccine for emergency use. Before the vote, medical experts will assess J&J's clinical trial data and offer their opinions on the vaccine, including whether the benefits outweigh the risks for an emergency use authorization. A favorable vote will likely clear the path for the U.S. agency to approve J&J's shots as early as Saturday. The U.S. government plans to ship 3 million to 4 million doses to states, pharmacies and community health centers next week, pending authorization.
– Berkeley Lovelace Jr. | | | | Covid vaccines are a $33+ billion market… and that's just this year | Moderna said it expects more than $18 billion in revenue from its Covid-19 vaccine this year, after Pfizer forecast $15 billion for its vaccine. These figures make the vaccines among the top-selling drugs of all time. Pfizer and Moderna are both preparing for recurring revenue: each announced plans this week to test both booster shots of the original vaccine, and to update the vaccine to address variants of concern, should we need it. "As we've said for a long time now," Moderna CEO Stephane Bancel told us on Fast Money this week, "we don't think Covid is going away." But, he said, they think they have the vaccine technology to get it under control.
– Meg Tirrell | | | | Vaccine supply set to surge next month, manufacturers testify | Covid-19 vaccine makers told lawmakers this week that the U.S. supply of shots is slated to get a big boost next month. Executives from Pfizer and Moderna both testified at a hearing before the House Committee on Energy and Commerce that they will more than double the number of doses they're sending to the U.S. in March. And an executive from J&J said the company plans to be able to send 20 million doses to the U.S. by the end of March. If the companies carry through on their plans, the U.S. is set to have received 240 million doses of vaccine by the end of March, enough to vaccinate about 130 million people.
– Will Feuer | | | | Vaccine passports are under consideration and experts are concerned | Public health officials and civil liberty organizations are urging policymakers to resist calls for coronavirus vaccine passports, at a time when many countries are in the process of reviewing whether to introduce digital passes. It is thought a digital passport could help stimulate an economic recovery as countries prepare to relax public health measures over the coming weeks. But scientists say we know very little "about the effectiveness of vaccines in preventing infection or even asymptomatic disease against several variants circulating in different countries."
– Sam Meredith | | | | Elderly who appear to recover from Covid were reinfected with an even worse case | A new CDC study found that some elderly people who apparently recovered from the coronavirus later came down with a second, even worse case — indicating that asymptomatic or mild cases may not provide a lot of protection against becoming reinfected with Covid-19. The study looked at two separate outbreaks that occurred three months apart at a skilled nursing facility in Kentucky. The findings suggest the possibility that people who show mild to no symptoms during their first infections "do not produce a sufficiently robust immune response to prevent reinfection."
– Noah Higgins-Dunn | | | | Teledoc CEO sees telehealths pandemic momentum staying strong | We may have embraced telehealth last year because of the pandemic, but Jason Gorevic sees this as the year it becomes a way to deliver "whole person care" rather than just an occasional doctor visit. The $18 billion deal for Livongo means Teladoc can help people manage diabetes and heart disease, but the secret weapon to building that concept could well be its mental health service BetterHelp, which surged 500% in 2020.
– Bertha Coombs | | | | Here's what you need to know about Covid variants | Even though Covid-19 cases are on the decline, leading U.S. health officials are worried that more contagious — and possibly more deadly — variants of the virus could challenge the nation's progress. As more people become infected, the more likely it is that problematic mutations will arise. SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes Covid-19, has had plenty of opportunities to spread and replicate, experts warn. CNBC compiled everything you need to know about why viruses mutate, why some are worse than others, what this means for life-saving vaccines and more.
– Noah Higgins-Dunn | |
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