[vlovich123]

Given that Moderna is the first ever company to bring such a vaccine to market and they’ve been working on mRNA for the past 10 years, I imagine there’s a lot of technical complexity to actually deliver a therapy and then mass produce it beyond just the basic concept.

Reading how Pfizer and Moderna worked on it together, they needed detailed gene sequencing to understand how to design a potential vaccine. Even then they were left with a lot of potential options they still had to whittle down. Finally even with all that work they’re left with a vaccine with complex storage requirements.

So it’s entirely possible that we just didn’t have the surrounding technical ability even if theoretically it was possible. The gene sequencing to sequence it quickly and share that across the entire world, the compute needed to do try different experiments at scale, the manufacturing capabilities, Moderna having invested in the space for the preceding 10 years, existing experience with developing a SARS vaccine, etc.

[maxerickson]

Pfizer worked with BioNTech, not Moderna.

Moderna's vaccine is a great deal easier to store than the BioNTech/Pfizer vaccine (requires 'normal' freezers for storage, can be at refrigerator temperatures for a longer period).

[denimnerd42]

BioNTech and Moderna both have links to Katalin Kariko so while they didn't explicitly work together on this the knowledge comes from similar research and sources.

[Narretz]

I think you mean BioNTech not Moderna.