Publication Signup – Below Article / In Web page
“*” signifies required fields
Within the warmth of the COVID-19 disaster, a wave of vaccine corporations stepped into the highlight with unprecedented pace and visibility. Driving a surge of private and non-private funding, they raced to develop vaccines and therapeutics that might curb a once-in-a-century international emergency. Whereas pharma giants like AstraZeneca and Johnson & Johnson additionally performed distinguished roles, a lot of the momentum and threat was carried by smaller biotech gamers abruptly thrown onto the worldwide stage. For a quick second, it appeared like these corporations would possibly reshape the pharmaceutical panorama for good.
Quick ahead to 2025, and the image is way extra complicated.
Some, like Moderna and BioNTech, used the momentum to construct expansive pipelines past COVID-19, branching into most cancers, flu, RSV, and different ailments. Others, nonetheless, at the moment are cutting down, pivoting, or fading from view fully. Simply this month, corporations together with GeoVax, CastleVax, and Vaxart revealed they have been instructed to halt their government-backed work on next-generation COVID vaccines beneath the Biden-era Mission NextGen, casting doubt on the long-term strategic worth of those initiatives. Though the U.S. Division of Well being and Human Companies has mentioned the stop-work orders are short-term, the broader message is obvious: the period of fast-tracked COVID funding and a spotlight could also be over.
This text takes inventory of the biotech surge born from the pandemic. Which corporations managed to rework short-term success into long-term imaginative and prescient? Who struggled to adapt as soon as the urgency pale?
Moderna
Moderna was among the many biotech corporations that rose to prominence in the course of the pandemic, enjoying a central function within the international vaccination effort. When Moderna’s COVID-19 vaccine crossed the end line in late 2020, it was greater than a victory over the virus — it marked a turning level for mRNA know-how itself. Though well-known in biotech circles, Moderna had by no means introduced a product to market earlier than the pandemic. Its vaccine helped drive international immunization efforts alongside Pfizer and BioNTech, and catapulted the corporate into public consciousness virtually in a single day.
Since then, Moderna has been working to show it wasn’t only a pandemic success story. The corporate has leaned closely on its mRNA platform to construct a broader pipeline, hoping to point out that the know-how can do greater than struggle a single virus. In 2024, it scored a second approval with mRESVIA, a vaccine designed to guard older adults from respiratory syncytial virus (RSV). Early trial knowledge instructed sturdy safety in opposition to extreme sickness, positioning the shot as a part of a brand new seasonal vaccine technique alongside COVID-19 and flu boosters.
Moderna has additionally moved into most cancers remedy, partnering with Merck on a personalised vaccine that trains the immune system to acknowledge the distinctive mutations in a affected person’s tumor. Early leads to melanoma have been promising sufficient to push this system into section 3 improvement.
Regardless of the progress, Moderna nonetheless faces a well-known problem for pandemic-era biotechs: transferring past COVID-19 income dependence. In 2023, Moderna reported whole revenues of $6.8 billion, a big lower from $19.3 billion in 2022. This decline was primarily resulting from a discount in gross sales of its COVID-19 vaccine.
Moderna has acknowledged the challenges posed by shifting dynamics within the COVID-19 and RSV vaccine markets, which have examined its business methods and necessitated a reassessment of its monetary framework. Whether or not its guess on mRNA throughout infectious illness and oncology can ship a sustainable enterprise stays one of many massive questions going through the corporate.
BioNTech
Alongside Moderna, BioNTech helped deliver mRNA know-how into the general public eye in the course of the pandemic. Partnering with Pfizer, the German biotech developed one of many first licensed COVID-19 vaccines, contributing to mRNA’s rise as a brand new platform for contemporary drugs. However whereas Moderna leaned closely into increasing its infectious illness pipeline, BioNTech has spent a lot of its post-pandemic effort returning to its unique ambition: utilizing mRNA to struggle most cancers.
Earlier than COVID-19, BioNTech was primarily centered on oncology, and as we speak it’s investing closely to satisfy that early imaginative and prescient. The corporate is advancing a broad portfolio of most cancers therapies, from customized mRNA vaccines that encode neoantigens distinctive to every affected person’s tumor, to off-the-shelf immunotherapies designed for wider populations. Its collaboration with Genentech moved a personalised vaccine for head and neck cancers into section 2 improvement, and BioNTech is working greater than 20 section 2 and three scientific trials throughout a variety of stable tumors.
That ambition comes with excessive prices. As COVID-19 vaccine gross sales declined sharply, BioNTech reported €2.8 billion ($3.2 billion) in income for 2024, and posted a internet lack of €700 million ($796 million) final yr. A lot of the spending displays its aggressive enlargement into oncology analysis and manufacturing. The COVID-19 partnership with Pfizer continues to generate vital revenues, however like Moderna, BioNTech is aware of this revenue will taper over time.
Past most cancers, BioNTech is exploring mRNA vaccines for malaria, tuberculosis, and shingles, although most of those applications are nonetheless early-stage. Additionally it is partnering with Pfizer on a mixed COVID-19 and influenza vaccine, though the section 3 trial didn’t meet its major endpoint. The 2 corporations are evaluating changes to the candidate.
Whereas Pfizer wasn’t reworked by COVID in the way in which smaller vaccine corporations have been, the BioNTech partnership gave it one of the profitable merchandise in its historical past, at the same time as the corporate now faces a broader income decline post-pandemic.
Novavax
Novavax entered the COVID-19 vaccine race with a particular method, growing a protein-based vaccine that supplied an alternative choice to the mRNA vaccines produced by Moderna and Pfizer-BioNTech. Regardless of securing Emergency Use Authorization (EUA) from the U.S. Meals and Drug Administration (FDA) in July 2022, the corporate confronted vital challenges in gaining market share, primarily as a result of earlier availability and widespread adoption of mRNA vaccines.
Financially, Novavax has confronted vital challenges. In early 2023, the corporate issued a press launch indicating doubts about its potential to proceed operations with out securing extra funding. This announcement adopted a considerable decline in income and inventory worth. A subsequent partnership with Sanofi in 2024 supplied some monetary aid, together with a $175 million milestone cost contingent upon FDA approval of Novavax’s COVID-19 vaccine.
Nonetheless, in an effort to transition from EUA to full FDA approval for its COVID vaccine, the corporate encountered regulatory hurdles. This week, Reuters reported that the FDA requested extra knowledge to display the vaccine’s efficacy. This requirement deviated from the precedent set for mRNA vaccines, the place up to date formulations didn’t necessitate new large-scale trials. The surprising demand for additional research led to delays within the approval course of and contributed to monetary pressure on the corporate.
Regardless of these setbacks, Novavax continues to pursue full FDA approval for its COVID-19 vaccine. The corporate’s protein-based vaccine platform stays a focus of its technique to determine a foothold within the aggressive vaccine market. Nonetheless, the mixture of regulatory delays and monetary difficulties raises doubts about whether or not Novavax will have the ability to translate its scientific efforts into business success.
CureVac
As soon as a frontrunner in mRNA vaccine improvement, the German firm confronted vital setbacks that reshaped its strategic path.
In June 2021, CureVac introduced that its first-generation COVID-19 vaccine candidate, CVnCoV, demonstrated solely 47% efficacy in a section 2b/3 trial, falling wanting the efficacy ranges achieved by rivals like Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna. This disappointing consequence led to the discontinuation of CVnCoV’s improvement and a reevaluation of the corporate’s method to mRNA know-how.
In response, CureVac intensified its collaboration with GlaxoSmithKline (GSK), specializing in the event of next-generation mRNA vaccines. This partnership culminated in a big restructuring in July 2024, whereby GSK acquired full rights to develop, manufacture, and commercialize CureVac’s mRNA vaccine candidates for influenza and COVID-19. The deal included an upfront cost of €400 million ($455 million) and potential milestone funds as much as €1.05 billion ($1.2 billion).
The settlement allowed CureVac to streamline its operations and redirect its focus towards oncology. Nonetheless, this strategic pivot was accompanied by substantial organizational adjustments, together with a workforce discount of roughly 30% to scale back working prices by €25 million ($28.4 million). These measures have been a part of a broader effort to increase the corporate’s monetary runway and focus on high-value mRNA pipeline alternatives.
Whereas it didn’t have the success it anticipated within the struggle in opposition to COVID, some brighter days may be forward for CureVac in oncology. Certainly, in April 2025, CureVac acquired clearance from the FDA to provoke a section 1 scientific trial for a novel mRNA-based precision immunotherapy concentrating on squamous non-small cell lung most cancers (NSCLC). This investigational remedy, CVHNLC, contains two mRNA constructs encoding a complete of eight tumor-associated antigens, combining each established and novel targets recognized via AI-powered platforms.
Valneva
Whereas mRNA platforms dominated the dialog, Valneva developed VLA2001, the one inactivated, adjuvanted whole-virus COVID-19 vaccine to obtain EU advertising and marketing authorization in 2022, however the timing nonetheless labored in opposition to it. By the point it was permitted, most European nations had already secured ample doses from Pfizer and Moderna, and public demand was waning. Contracts have been canceled, and Valneva’s shot struggled to discover a foothold within the crowded market.
Fairly than doubling down, Valneva redirected its focus towards areas the place competitors was much less intense and the place it had already constructed momentum. Its most notable success got here with IXCHIQ, a single-dose chikungunya vaccine, which acquired FDA approval in November 2023. It was the primary permitted chikungunya vaccine on this planet. The corporate additionally acquired a optimistic opinion from the European Medicines Company in early 2024.
Nonetheless, latest developments have introduced challenges. Just a few days in the past, French well being authorities quickly suspended the usage of IXCHIQ in adults aged 65 and older following experiences of significant adversarial occasions, together with one dying, throughout a vaccination marketing campaign in La Réunion. Valneva is cooperating with the investigation and helps the precautionary measures taken.
Valneva is now positioning itself as a specialist in journey and endemic infectious illness vaccines, with energetic applications concentrating on Lyme illness, in collaboration with Pfizer, the Zika virus, and others. The corporate can also be making restructuring efforts to streamline operations and prioritize its commercial-stage belongings.
Whereas the corporate’s COVID-19 vaccine effort didn’t ship the breakthrough some had hoped for, Valneva has managed to carve out a sustainable function within the vaccine house, much less seen than the mRNA giants, however not with out impression.
Not everybody stayed within the recreation
Whereas a number of COVID-era vaccine corporations have managed to remain within the public eye or reinvent themselves, others have discovered it tougher to adapt. Inovio, for instance, as soon as touted its DNA vaccine platform as a game-changing various to mRNA. After delays and setbacks, it has shifted its focus towards therapeutic areas like cervical dysplasia and HPV-related cancers, however with far much less visibility than in the course of the pandemic. Different corporations, like Vaxart and GeoVax, noticed promising applications stall beneath Mission NextGen’s stop-work orders. And a few, like CastleVax, try to remain the course with inside funding or various illness targets, however with unsure prospects.
The COVID-19 disaster was a uncommon high-stakes second for biotech — a race run at unprecedented pace, the place threat and reward have been each off the charts. For some corporations, it was a breakthrough: mRNA platforms that had by no means reached the market abruptly turned international mainstays, and early movers like Moderna and BioNTech used the highlight to construct one thing lasting.
However not everybody crossed that end line the identical manner. Others confronted harsh actuality checks — scientific setbacks, regulatory roadblocks, or just unhealthy timing. In hindsight, the pandemic didn’t simply reward daring innovation; it uncovered the distinction between having a promising concept and having the foundations to hold it ahead. The businesses that stay related as we speak are those that managed to show a fleeting alternative right into a long-term technique, not only a dash, however the begin of one thing extra.
Oncology R&D developments and breakthrough improvements
Sponsored by Kadans, this report identifies the most recent developments and rising applied sciences in oncology R&D.
