News for hackers. Stuff that matters.

A comment on How Pfizer delivered a Covid vaccine in record time. Parent comment

Re:How Pfizer delivered a Covid vaccine in record time by blhack on Sunday December 13, 2020 @02:37PM (#25409411)
How? To use a scenario that HNers are likely more familiar with: this is like when a video game company does preorders for a video game.

Or a concert promoter sells tickets before the event is built, etc.

The purpose is to offset risk. Pfizer didn't have to take a risk on this vaccine, because they had already sold enough of it to cover their development costs. They may have "used their own money", but that ultimately comes down to an accounting technicality for a company that large.

[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:How Pfizer delivered a Covid vaccine in record time by pasttense01 on Sunday December 13, 2020 @02:47PM (#25409496)
Suppose the vaccines didn't work or had massive side-effects. Then Pfizer wouldn't get any money. Conversely Moderna would still have gotten much of this research money.
[ Parent | on HN ]