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Progress Deferred: Lessons From mRNA Vaccine Development - Institute for Progress

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mRNA technologies represent a massive advance in society’s ability to combat disease. Since they were used to address the COVID-19 pandemic, mRNA vaccines are now being applied to halt the spread of HIV, MERS, malaria, tuberculosis, and other conditions. mRNA vaccines can also be developed and manufactured at higher speed and lower cost than traditional vaccines, allowing society to more nimbly address biological threats. Global crisis accelerated the development and deployment of mRNA vaccines in 2020. But the concept of mRNA vaccines had been first proposed decades earlier in 1988. A critical discovery by Katalin Karikó and Drew Weissman, that foreign mRNA could be modified to allow it to be introduced into a cell without triggering an immune response from the body, was first published in 2005. Karikó and Weissman’s paper was itself based on observations previously made in papers dating to the 1960s.1 Much of the fundamental groundwork needed to make mRNA vaccines a practical reality

Download PDF Content Could we have had mRNA vaccines earlier? Part I – A brief history of mRNA vaccine development The battle against HIV Chilling effects The COVID-19 pandemic Part II – Structural frictions Perceived viability of mRNA Vaccines as an unprofitable research field Specialization in research vs entrepreneurship Part III – Recommendations Intervention 1: Increase the variance of research funding Intervention 2: Address market failures in the “scientific marketplace” Intervention 3: Support research entrepreneurialism Lessons Acknowledgements Could we have had mRNA vaccines earlier?

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