The Vaccine Makers

Fortune Editors

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These companies use the creative tools of capitalism—including the profit motive—to address society’s unmet needs.

CTW 2021-01-Vaccine Makers

In the ceaseless tide of worry over the pandemic, it’s easy to forget how far we’ve come. It is nothing short of remarkable how quickly the pharmaceutical industry developed not one but several COVID-19 vaccines. Not even a year after the first regulatory approvals, <a class="c-link" href="https://fortune.com/2021/10/06/covid-vaccination-rates-state-and-country-breakdown/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" data-stringify-link="https://fortune.com/2021/10/06/covid-vaccination-rates-state-and-country-breakdown/" data-sk="tooltip_parent" data-remove-tab-index="true">well over 30% of the global populace</a> has been fully vaccinated—a historic and humbling achievement. 
 
Still, the vaccine rollout has been deeply uneven, with poorer countries left lagging far behind richer counterparts that bought up most of the supply. Scientists and ethicists agree that the disparity is bad for humanity. Not only do inadequately vaccinated populations suffer more harm, they also risk becoming breeding grounds for fast-moving variants of the virus that might evolve to be vaccine-resistant. The Delta variant—and the intense economic uncertainty surrounding it—has provided an unwelcome glimpse of that future. 
 
That’s the thinking behind our No. 1 entry for this year’s Change the World list. While last year’s list honored the pharma industry’s <a class="c-link" href="https://fortune.com/longform/covid-vaccine-big-pharma-drugmakers-coronavirus-pharmaceutical-industry/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" data-stringify-link="https://fortune.com/longform/covid-vaccine-big-pharma-drugmakers-coronavirus-pharmaceutical-industry/" data-sk="tooltip_parent" data-remove-tab-index="true">unprecedented collaboration on beating the virus</a>, this year Fortune is highlighting companies that are racing to expand access to vaccines, especially in the Global South. For more, read "<a href="https://fortune.com/2021/10/11/covid-19-vaccine-makers-pfizer-biontech-moderna-astrazeneca-johnson-johnson-global-effort">COVID-19 vaccine makers fight the pandemic fight, worldwide</a>."

Change the World

As we face unprecedented collective challenges, cooperation has become a business superpower.

01.CTW20.Vaccine-Makers

Nearly 200 possible COVID-19 vaccines in development. Thirty-nine in human clinical trials. Nine in Phase III trials. The extent to which the pharmaceutical industry has mobilized to attack the pandemic is truly unprecedented. But just as unprecedented is the sector’s wholehearted embrace of collaboration. 
 
We’ve seen traditional pharma giant <a href="https://fortune.com/longform/covid-vaccine-coronavirus-astrazeneca-big-pharma-pascal-soriot/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" data-auth="NotApplicable">AstraZeneca</a> partner with a venerable academic institution (University of Oxford) to swiftly bring a vaccine candidate from lab to human trial. We’ve seen rivals snuggle up in pairs (<a href="https://fortune.com/2020/04/14/sanofi-glaxosmithkline-develop-coronavirus-vaccine/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" data-auth="NotApplicable">Sanofi and GSK</a>) and international collaborations galore: <a href="https://fortune.com/2020/08/20/pfizer-covid-vaccine-regulatory-review-october/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" data-auth="NotApplicable">Germany’s BioNTech</a>, for instance, is testing one novel messenger RNA vaccine with giant <a href="https://fortune.com/company/pfizer/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" data-auth="NotApplicable">Pfizer</a>, in New York, and a second <a href="https://fortune.com/2020/09/11/when-will-covid-vaccine-be-ready-china/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" data-auth="NotApplicable">with Fosun Pharma</a>, in Shanghai. 
 
As Giovanni Caforio, CEO of <a href="https://fortune.com/company/bristol-myers-squibb/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" data-auth="NotApplicable">Bristol Myers Squibb</a>, told Fortune this summer: “I have never seen the level of collaboration that’s going on today … so how do we take what we’ve learned in the last six months and apply it to cancer?” Or, for that matter, to dengue, diabetes, and myriad other plagues? 
 
Read more: <a href="https://fortune.com/longform/covid-vaccine-big-pharma-drugmakers-coronavirus-pharmaceutical-industry">'The whole world is coming together': How the race for a COVID vaccine is revolutionizing Big Pharma</a>

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