A year ago, little was known about the mysterious virus that infected dozens of people in China and spread rapidly without the knowledge of people around the world.
In the midst of much uncertainty and confusion, Bennett has emerged as one of the undefeated heroes of epidemics, working tirelessly behind the scenes throughout the year to help the engineer with a vaccine that could save millions of lives.
Bennett holds degrees in environmental health and microbiology from the University of Washington and a certificate in epidemiology from the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine.
“We’ve come a long way in 12 months,” Bennett told ABC News in an exclusive interview with “The Shot: Race for the Vaccine” an hour-long special edition of “20/20” airing Monday at 10 p.m.
Although the origin of COVID-19 was first publicly announced in late December 2019, little is known about the virus outbreak. In January, with rapid growth in infection rates in Wuhan, China, and growing evidence of high social outbreaks, the leadership of Moderna acknowledged that the outbreak was a serious threat and asked Bennett to start working on a Govt-19 vaccine as soon as the new genetic sequence was obtained.
Moderna already had a template because it had taken many years to design experimental MRNA vaccines for the Middle East respiratory syndrome corona virus (MERS-Cowie) and Zika virus. The company has been working with the National Institutes of Health (NIH) for many years to bring new types of vaccines to market.
However, the decision that Moderna faced in early January – the risk of trying to develop a vaccine against the fast-spreading novel corona virus – could lead to valuable resources leading to a viral threat into a full – scale epidemic that we do not yet know.
Similar discussions were taking place among many of the world’s leading pharmaceutical companies, which, according to Bennett, described the call for an industry conference in late January and expressed concern about the risks posed by the emergence of a number of top executives in global efforts. While betting on as yet unproven vaccine technology, some said it was diverting resources from rich research areas and reconsidering other lucrative projects.
Others did not believe the infection would last more than a few months, and felt it would be more prudent to wait before proceeding until evidence was available that the virus was indeed a threat.
Bennett said he felt very strongly that it was the company’s moral and social duty to develop the vaccine, despite the risks, and thus argued that it should push the company to take up gambling.
“We hope that our site will make a difference. We hope that we have the unique ability to respond to this epidemic. If we do not do that, no one else will like it,” Bennett said. Rational at the time.
Two days after the virus’ first complete gene was mapped in early January and made public online, Moderna’s COVID-19 vaccine candidate mRNA-1273 was finalized.
“Once every six hours, on Saturdays and Sundays, ask, ‘Have you designed the vaccine queue yet?’ I think that’s the point. Bennett described.
The team was also able to quickly identify the spike protein and engineering and stabilize it to stimulate a strong immune response, and when Bennett’s team and researchers at the NIH found that the same sequence had been independently designed, they were optimistic about their findings.
This new type of vaccine relied on the most innovative and experimental technology, using messenger RNA (MRNA), which was informally described as “software of life” by Moderna.
Unlike many traditional vaccines that have weak or inactive forms of the virus, a vaccine that uses MRNA to stimulate the body’s immune system to produce antibodies sends a few instructions to cells to teach them to make a protein, which is an immune response within our body to fight the disease.
But a vaccine based on MRNA has not previously been approved or approved by the FDA.
Dr. Barney Graham, Deputy Director of the Vaccine Research Center at Moderna and NIH, discussed the implementation of a pilot project for the MRNA vaccine in 2020.
However, when the severity of the infection is clear, “How do we know what MRNA can do, trust our platform, and show the global public health community what MRNA can do with an infection?” Said Bennett. “We felt it [SARS-CoV-2] Our prototype and this is a live stream. “This is no longer an interesting experiment on a clinical scale.
Time was of the essence. A major advantage of MRNA is that it is much easier for researchers to produce these RNA sequences once they know the sequence of viral protein they want to target.
“Every day we accelerated that timeline faster and faster. I was very focused on the show, leaving the office at 10pm. Coming back at 7am. It felt like the world around us was changing, but for us in the project, our whole world was programmed,” Bennett said. Said.
Moderna’s Phase 1 study was initially expected to begin in late April, but acknowledging the urgency of the situation, Bennett’s team pushed the timeline forward.
“We will set a deadline for Phase 1 thinking we can start a Phase 1 study in April,” Bennett said. But when the first case documented in the United States was confirmed by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on Jan. 20, Bennett’s team “had to move very fast.” “Realized that. Clearly, it’s coming, it’s coming to the states.”
Two months later, Moderna began its NIH-led Phase 1 study.
When data from Moderna’s clinical trials revealed that the vaccine candidate had developed a protective immune response, it was a “sigh of relief” from the team – but “no time to appreciate it,” Bennett said. “The world was watching us because we started the first study in the United States and we did it faster than anyone before. At that point, you have to succeed.”
After successfully launching Phase 2 and 3 trials, Moderna announced a performance rate of 94.1%.
When Bennett heard the good news at a conference call with his colleagues, he said, “Most of us may have somehow stopped at the call and been blackened for a while.”
Now, while waiting for Ford FDA’s emergency application approval, Bennett said he is proud of what his team has achieved.
“I think it’s okay to be brave about what we’ve done, stand up and say‘ we can do this ’and show the world that it’s okay,” Bennett said, and appreciate the hard work of his team that could have been months before he was fully finished. “I have a moment to step back and think about what I did, what our team did, what our company did.”
“Primarily for every person in the United States, but when it comes to a vaccine in our global space I think … only then can I breathe and say, ‘Well, we did it.’ She finished.