“Think about it from the perspective of a pharmaceutical company,” said James Cutrell, director of the infectious diseases fellowship program at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center in Dallas. “Infection typically is an acute illness that you are going to treat for a short period of time. If it’s a rare infection, there may not be that many people who take it. When these other viruses initially came out there was a lot of interest in developing treatments, but once they died off there wasn’t enough for clinical trials.”
The economic incentives for drugmakers changed with the Covid-19 pandemic, which is so widespread and so disruptive that a vaccine is seen as a societal necessity. The U.S. government, under its Operation Warp Speed program, has struck deals worth about $10 billion with drugmakers to develop and manufacture multiple vaccines. The shots they come up with, and their successors, could end up being used for years around the globe.
It’s also certainly not the last new virus the world will encounter.
“The science tells us that this virus isn’t unique, it’s one of many that are circulating in animals that may spread to us,” Dweik said. “There is no reason to think this won’t happen again.”
This article was provided by Bloomberg News.