OUR SCIENCE/ Get the Facts on Our COVID-19 Vaccine Candidates

2.  As the world continues to battle the
coronavirus pandemic, our scientists and
experts are working determinedly, and with
unprecedented partnership and speed, to bring
forth a vaccine. In collaboration with German
biotech company BioNTech,
we announced that the first participants in the
United States were dosed in the Phase 1/2
study of our COVID-19
mRNA vaccine program. Learn more about the
science and this milestone below:

3.  Vaccines are designed to prevent disease. A
vaccine stimulates your immune system
to respond and produce antibodies – like it
would be if you were exposed to the virus.
After getting vaccinated, you develop
immunity to that disease, without having to get
the disease first.1

4.  Vaccines are designed to prevent disease, while
treatments help to manage or cure a disease or
condition.1

5.  Yes – vaccines undergo extensive testing to
make sure they are safe and effective. Once a
vaccine is licensed, regulatory
authorities routinely monitor its use and
investigate any potential safety concerns.2


6.  The immunity conveyed by a
vaccine varies. For some vaccines, like polio
vaccines, immunity can last a lifetime,
while for other vaccines, like for
influenza, vaccines are needed annually.3

7.  Researchers and scientists globally are working to
develop a potential vaccine to prevent COVID-19.
Different groups are using various methods,
or technologies, to design possible COVID-
19 vaccines. Pfizer and BioNTech are focusing on
a technology called mRNA. The program includes four
experimental vaccines in different mRNA
formats. These four candidates were selected
based on pre-clinical studies, which indicated the
vaccine candidates are potentially effective and safe in
protecting against COVID-19.
 Any successful vaccine stimulates the immune system
to produce antibodies against a specific foreign body,
so that after getting vaccinated, a
person develops immunity to a specific infection.1

8.  mRNA vaccines potentially offer greater
flexibility and quicker development timelines
than traditional vaccines development.


9.  mRNA – or messenger RNA – is a molecule,
composed of nucleotides linked in a unique order
to convey genetic information for the cells to
produce the proteins or antigens encoded by the
mRNA. Once mRNA in a vaccine is inside of the
body’s cells, the cells use their genetic machinery
to translate the genetic
information and produce the antigens encoded by
the mRNA vaccine. The antigens are then
displayed on the cell surface, where they
are recognized by the immune system which
generates a response, including the production of
antibodies against the antigen.4

10.  mRNA vaccines have demonstrated a favorable
safety profile in pre-clinical studies.v Unlike
traditional vaccines, they do not use an
inactivated virus, but rather a portion of the
viral sequence encoding for one or more viral
antigens.

11.  The development of a novel vaccine is a
complex and lengthy process that generally
takes 10 to 15 years.vi Given the current global
scale of the COVID-19 pandemic, we
are working at an unprecedented speed to
develop a potential vaccine in a safe and
responsible way, collaborating closely with
regulatory and health authorities around the
world – compressing stages that have taken
years into months, and those that have taken
months into weeks.

12.  By the end of 2020, we have the potential to
supply millions of vaccines, subject to success
of the development program and regulatory
approval.

13.  We will collaborate closely with regulatory and
health authorities around the world to provide
a potential vaccine to areas in greatest
need and assuming success of the development
program and regulatory approval, based on
patient demographic data being produced in
real time and being monitored throughout our
clinical development process.