Inside the Race to Make Vaccines Faster and Cheaper
mRNA platforms cut development from years to months. The next challenge is getting doses to the places that need them most.
Before 2020, the fastest vaccine ever developed took four years. The first COVID-19 shots were authorised in under twelve months, largely thanks to mRNA, a technology researchers had been refining for decades.
Plug-and-play medicine
Because an mRNA vaccine is a set of instructions rather than a grown virus, scientists can swap in a new sequence within weeks. Trials are already under way for flu, RSV and several cancers.
The bottleneck has moved from the lab to the freezer. Many mRNA vaccines need ultra-cold storage, which is hard to guarantee in rural clinics. Teams in South Africa and Brazil are now testing versions that stay stable in an ordinary fridge.