Merck Halts Covid-19 Vaccine | AbCellera Billionaire | The Wolf Moon

Plus: Covid Killed A Tiger. Are Your House Cats At Risk?

Much of the discussion around Covid-19 vaccines has focused on how good they are at reducing people’s chances of getting severe disease. Trials of the Pfizer/BioNTech and Moderna vaccines showed around 95% efficacy--meaning people who got the vaccine relative to a placebo had a greatly reduced relative risk. Earlier this week, U.S. pharma giant Merck announced it was stopping its Covid-19 vaccine program because it failed to generate adequate immune response. While this may seem like a step back as the world anxiously awaits more vaccine vials, this is how science is supposed to work. Since there are better alternatives already on the market, there’s no use in Merck continuing development of an inferior vaccine. Now the company will instead focus on its Covid-19 therapeutics. 

The next big challenge for vaccine manufacturers will be around new Covid-19 variants, which occur when there are mutations in the virus, and determining whether existing vaccines remain effective. Moderna has launched a trial to study a booster vaccination to combat the South African Covid-19 strain. Dr. Dave Wessner, a Forbes Coronavirus Frontlines contributor, explains why it’s important to identify new variants as soon as they emerge and some of the concerns for public health officials. 

Any questions? Send me an email at kjennings@forbes.com.

Carl Hansen, cofounder and CEO of Vancouver-based AbCellera Biologics, is worth $3 billion following the company’s December IPO. AbCellera offers “drug discovery as a service,” meaning it uses its proprietary technology to find prospects for bigger pharma companies that then take the candidates further along the drug development pipeline. In its highest-profile success to date, AbCellera examined thousands of antibodies derived from the blood of people who had recovered from Covid-19 in order to identify the antibodies that did the best job fighting the virus. It turned over the most promising antibodies to drug company Eli Lilly, which began clinical trials on one of those antibodies, bamlanivimab, in May. 

Noteworthy

Sources: Walgreens Boots Alliance taps Starbucks operating chief Rosalind Brewer as its next CEO. 

FDA approves ViiV Healthcare’s Cabenuva as the first monthly injection to treat HIV. 

Digital health startup Hims & Hers goes public in $1.6 billion SPAC deal. 

UnitedHealth Group profits fell nearly 40% in the fourth quarter as Americans resumed getting medical treatment put off by the Covid-19 pandemic.

Lithium, the standard treatment for bipolar disorder, doesn’t work for everyone and now scientists have a clue as to why. 

Across Forbes

• North America Will Get A ‘Perfect’ View Of This Week’s Full ‘Wolf Moon.’

• This Wild Goat Is The First Species To Go Extinct Twice

• GameStop Saga Continues As Reddit Users Battle Wall Street–Here’s The Latest In The Wild 2,300% Stock Surge

• Skipping The Super Bowl, Budweiser Is Donating Its Ad Dollars To Covid-19 Vaccine Awareness Efforts

What Else We Are Reading

• ‘But I never smoked’: A growing share of lung cancer cases is turning up in an unexpected population (STAT)

• This Forbes 30 Under 30 honoree paid off $65,000 in debt before she finished grad school—and her husband’s loans are next (CNBC)

• Pfizer Will Ship Fewer Vaccine Vials to Account for ‘Extra’ Doses (The New York Times)