附近上门

As the first Americans receive COVID-19 vaccinations this week developed by big pharmaceutical companies, hundreds of startups focused on vaccines, testing kits and other COVID-19 products are riding the momentum–eager to get their own products to market in the next year.

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鈥淎t first, no one knew how to address the health pandemic, but now it is all hands on deck for the 170 or so drug candidates out there,鈥� said , 鈥檚 chief business officer, in an interview with 附近上门 News. 鈥淐odagenix felt like its platform could add value for society, especially for SARS-CoV-2, and we feel differentiated from other candidates.鈥�

New York-based Codagenix is working with . to develop a single-dose intranasal, live vaccine against SARS-CoV-2. It has raised $26.8 million in venture-backed funding, according to 附近上门 data, and its phase one clinical trial this month from the to commence in London.

Codagenix will need to complete further trials before it can go to market. Currently, nearly 16.5 million and just over 300,000 deaths were reported in the U.S. On Dec. 11, the granted and its German partner , and Pfizer celebrated its first shipments of the vaccine. It鈥檚 expected that biotech company 鈥� version will be next.

Codagenix investor , founder and managing partner at , said in an interview that Pfizer鈥檚 initial data confirmed what he had been seeing in the industry.

鈥淚t was clear to me that we are in a really cool era where the mRNA vaccine approach appears to live up to the promises that Moderna and BioNTech had originally hyped,鈥� he said.

Vaccine race

Historically, vaccines have not been a sexy investment. Since March, however, if a startup has a COVID idea, it could raise millions of dollars if there is a credible team and technology that makes sense, Rockman said.

Indeed, the second and third quarters of 2020 saw some of the biggest investments by venture capital investors into health care and biotechnology startups. VCs infused $34.9 billion of capital into companies as of Dec. 11, according to 附近上门 data. The third quarter saw the most funding with $14.2 billion: the highest quarterly increase compared to 2018 and 2019.

Investors say the way startups are innovating to tackle COVID will benefit the world in the long term and provides a roadmap for how to better handle future infectious disease outbreaks.

鈥淭his shows that (the Trump administration鈥檚) was successful,鈥� , founder of , told 附近上门 News. 鈥淭he vaccines came about much faster鈥攊t used to take seven to 12 years鈥攁nd this was done in under a year. The bad news is there will be more pandemics.鈥�

led biopharmaceutical company 鈥檚 , which was announced in October. , partner at Zoic, said the vaccine race is just starting. HDT develops immune therapeutics and also is working on a COVID vaccine.

He said the reason the big pharma companies were able to get to the FDA so quickly is because they are using older data and outdated techniques, such as incubating in eggs.

鈥淏ecause of that, manufacturing will require special tools and materials, which means companies will have to cut back on vaccine production goals,鈥� Tan added. 鈥淧fizer and Moderna have good results, but there are not enough vaccines to cover the world and may not be enough to cover the United States.鈥�

We are already seeing evidence of that with Pfizer, he said: On Dec. 3, the that Pfizer expected to ship half the COVID vaccines it had originally planned for this year.

In contrast, HDT is using more recent technology to produce its vaccines, Tan said. As a result, HDT鈥檚 technology will have the same efficacy of Pfizer鈥檚 vaccine, but will not require the same cold storage needs of minus 70 degrees Celsius, can be manufactured at a lower cost, and will not use raw materials, he added.

Meanwhile, COVID-19 is going to be around forever, said , co-founder and managing director at early-stage life sciences venture firm , so the question is: What will the world be like a year from now?

He expects vaccines will be mostly effective, though we don鈥檛 know yet how long they will last or their long-term effects. He also acknowledges not everyone will be vaccinated, so diagnostics and therapeutics will be important going forward, he said in an interview.

While the world hasn’t seen an infectious disease outbreak on the scale of COVID-19 in a century, the next global pandemic could happen again much sooner.

鈥淛ust because it is a 100-year event doesn鈥檛 mean it is going to wait that long to happen again,鈥� Nelson said.

Nimble startups

Startup founders say the global pandemic has highlighted the shortcomings of the country鈥檚 health care system, and startups have stepped up with innovative products and services supporting COVID-19 treatment.

Examples include , which created an end-to-end COVID-19 test system designed to automate existing processes.

鈥淪tartups need to be agile to help wherever they need help,鈥� said , CEO of SummerBio, in an interview. 鈥淲e are moving toward direct-to-consumer testing at home and seeing what other infectious disease tests could be done. By leveraging this, we can build capacity for other capabilities in the future.鈥�

, co-founder and CEO of , also said startups got a push from COVID to highlight health care needs. The Irvine, California-based company is developing a portable laboratory testing platform and has raised , according to 附近上门 data.

There will continue to be a need for increased COVID testing abilities while the effectiveness of the initial vaccines is still unknown, he said.

鈥淚nitially, doctors weren鈥檛 even allowed to give tests unless they thought it was COVID,鈥� Patel added. 鈥淚n today鈥檚 world, data is so important. It鈥檚 all about technology to get this information sooner.鈥�

In terms of disrupting the vaccine space, that鈥檚 where Fu said Codagenix accels.

He doesn鈥檛 dispute that the vaccines being developed by , Pfizer and Moderna are effective, but with a goal to immunize everyone at the same time, vaccines need to be easy to administer and not require sophisticated cold storage or billions of needles and syringes to pull it off, he said.

鈥淲e have a modern twist to their vaccines,鈥� Fu added. 鈥淥urs is a scientific approach. We think ours will elicit an immune response that provides durability, though we don鈥檛 know what that will be yet. In addition, it is a single dose, and that is going to be important.鈥�

So far, Codagenix鈥檚 vaccine has shown to be safe and effective in preclinical animal studies against SARS-CoV-2. And the company is committed to developing the vaccine for countries that won鈥檛 be able to get it elsewhere, Fu said.

co-founder and CEO sees the volume of COVID testing being flat through the second quarter of 2021 before experiencing a small drop as more people are vaccinated. The San Francisco-based company, which provides precision health testing, secured an in 2019.

Sanae predicts more immediate testing for COVID, especially in a home environment, will come soon. The biggest vaccine challenge will be the 鈥渓ast mile:鈥� how they will reach facilities, who will monitor which person gets what vaccine, and who will keep up with reminders for the second dose.

鈥淭his is the No. 1 thing we solve with our current customers,鈥� he said in an interview. 鈥淒istribution to make it to the right place, notification and then post-vaccination–reporting for every individual, proof of record and daily symptom checking via apps–the combination of those three will be needed, but everyone is only talking about step one.鈥�

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