The mean development timeline for all new drugs (including vaccines) since 2000—from clinical testing to approval—was about ten years. Yet three COVID-19 vaccines were granted emergency-use authorization (EUA) or other forms of approval in Europe, the United Kingdom, or the United States just 11 months after the SARS-CoV-2 sequence was published. At every step, science moved faster than anyone thought possible—just like modern marathoners.
To read the article, see “Fast-forward: Will the speed of COVID-19 vaccine development reset industry norms?”, May 13, 2021.