The British Academy Conference on “Resolving Global Vaccine Inequity: Innovation, Capabilities and Governance” co-organized by SOAS and AIRNET

On April 11-12, 2024, SOAS University of London and the Academic-Industry Research Network, co-hosted the British Academy Conference on “Resolving Global Vaccine Inequity: Innovation, Capabilities and Governance” to gather biomedical and social scientists, public health practitioners, and policy makers to…

Sick with “Shareholder Value”: US Pharma’s Financialized Business Model During the Pandemic

by William Lazonick and Öner Tulum On August 16, 2022, Congress passed the Inflation Reduction Act, which, among other things, enables Medicare to negotiate the prices of certain high-cost prescription drugs, beginning in 2026.[1] Even though it is just one…

# 12. Who controls the supply of COVID-19 vaccines, and why does it matter?

by Öner Tulum, William Lazonick, Ken Jacobson, and Ellen Chappelka                          Nine months after the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) granted emergency use authorization (EUA) to the first of…

#10. Scaling of COVID vaccine manufacturing: Dose selection, stability, and optimization of mRNA-based COVID vaccines

by Öner Tulum, William Lazonick, and Ken Jacobson                           This is the final installment of a three-part series on the scalability of mRNA vaccine production. The current article focuses…

#9. Scaling of COVID vaccine manufacturing: Procuring lipids and assembling lipid nanoparticles 

by Öner Tulum, William Lazonick, and Ken Jacobson                           This is the second installment of a three-part series on the scalability of mRNA vaccine production. The current article focuses…

#7. Scaling of COVID vaccine manufacturing: What are the problems that can occur in the early stages?

by Öner Tulum, William Lazonick, and Ken Jacobson                           In March 2020, as a number of developers announced COVID-vaccine candidates that would begin clinical trials, vaccine manufacturers around the…

#6. Scaling of COVID vaccine manufacturing: Does the CEO understand the extraordinary complexities involved?

by Öner Tulum, William Lazonick, Ken Jacobson, and Ellen Chappelka                              During an interview on December 18, 2020, Moderna CEO Stéphane Bancel revealed his “Never Again Plan,” which…

#5. Scaling of COVID vaccine manufacturing: What manufacturing activities are involved and why are they so difficult?

by Öner Tulum, William Lazonick, and Ken Jacobson                             In March and April 2021, Americans received as many as four million doses a day of COVID-19 vaccines, far…