Hacker News Reader

Comment by mschuster91 | Hacker News Reader

> He added that the data indicates the Pfizer vaccine, which was developed in partnership with Germany’s BioNTech, is even more effective two weeks or more after the second shot.

That's wrong. BioNTech was the developer, Pfizer only was pulled in for manufacturing and clinical tests.

View on HN

One could argue that clinical trials are part of the development process.

They could, but it's clearly the part which can be replaced by anyone else. Without Pfizer we'd still have BionTech's vaccine, without BionTech we would not.

We literally have Moderna for the same kind of vaccine. Pfizer partnered with BioNTech because they'd had ongoing partnership. Pfizer's manufacturing and clinical test are the reasons why the trial was approved and millions of people got vaccinated in 2020.

> clearly the part which can be replaced by anyone else

Not clearly. Looks at trouble with AstraZeneca's trial and manufacturing issues.

This is really a worthless pissing contest but got brought up in every Pfizer/BioNTech thread.

I think it's important to distinguish the 'vaccine' as a complete package, that is, that which encompasses the distribution and regulatory framework (in the same sense that 'shipping' refers to more than just a single ship, but all the associated processes too), and the actual physical molecules that researchers pieced together. The latter wins Nobel prizes, the former wins the end of a pandemic. Both are valuable, but there's a clear difference.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com