The Covid-19 pandemic has been the rhythm of a good part of the daily life of human beings since the beginning of 2020. While this period has been tinged with hopes and disappointments and while the trend is for improvement in the countries where vaccination is the most broad, a timetable for a definitive exit from the crisis could emerge.
Stéphane Bancel, the French boss of Moderna, which manufactures one of the vaccines against the disease, expects an end of the pandemic in 2022. In an interview with the Swiss daily Neue Zürcher Zeitung, he believes that "there will be enough doses for vaccinate everyone on the planet ”by the middle of next year.
The perspective of combination vaccines
He also insisted on the need for a booster dose for the elderly and frail vaccinated at the start of the campaign.
In addition, his company is working on "an annual recall that covers all respiratory illnesses of viral origin," he said.
"Patients would receive a single injection and would be vaccinated against several viruses."
He considers that the messenger RNA vaccination technique makes it possible to envisage, for example, combinations of vaccines against the coronavirus and influenza.
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Stéphane Bancel thus draws a parallel with the annual versions of smartphones and their software.
In “Le Temps”, he explains that “each year, we want to add more viruses as we add an application to an iPhone”.
The vaccine would become a “multi-application product with annual updates”.
For him, the combined vaccines, which will offer protection against several viruses including Covid-19, will be on the market in 2023. First clinical trials will take place before the end of this year.
These development prospects should enable Moderna to increase the workforce at its European headquarters, which is located in Switzerland, in Basel.
According to a count made by AFP, six billion doses of vaccines have been administered worldwide.
Vaccination is very unevenly distributed: “high income” countries, according to a World Bank ranking, have injected an average of 124 doses per 100 inhabitants, against only 4 for “low income” countries.