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A comment on FDA approves Pfizer vaccine – UC Santa Cruz scientists explain how it works. Parent comment

Re:FDA approves Pfizer vaccine – UC Santa Cruz scientists ex... by tzs on Thursday December 10, 2020 @09:59PM (#25381763)
Another big difference is cost. Pfizer's looks like it is going to be $20 per dose in the US. Moderna's is going to be $15 per dose in the US and more after the initial 100 million dose deal with the government is over. Moderna has said they expect it to be $32-37 retail.

The leading conventional vaccine, the one from AstrZeneca, will be under $4 per dose in the US for the 300 million doses they have agreed to supply to the government, and they have said that they will "in perpetuity" supply it at cost to low and middle income countries.

That will probably make it or another conventional vaccine be the one that makes the biggest difference globally for this pandemic.

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Re:FDA approves Pfizer vaccine – UC Santa Cruz scientists ex... by nyokodo on Friday December 11, 2020 @01:51AM (#25383118)
Cost is a significant difference but I’d be interested to understand why the costs vary so much. For instance, if the cost difference is mainly because of the cost of cold storage and transport then it’s really only the one “trade off” but it is probably more complicated.

Also, the Oxford/Astra Zeneca vaccine isn’t a conventional vaccine but a viral vector vaccine which also has never been approved for use in humans. It acts similarly to the mRNA vaccines but uses a hollowed out adenovirus sheath as the transport mechanism of the RNA into the cell.

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Re:FDA approves Pfizer vaccine – UC Santa Cruz scientists ex... by mchusma on Friday December 11, 2020 @10:55AM (#25387090)
Cost for now is because the tech is new. Long term manufacturing cost benefits mRNA, because essentially you use the same "hardware" for each vaccine just different "software". They can comparatively much more easily produce something like RSV vaccines or anything else with the same core assembly line.
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