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The next time you chat with Megan, be sure to say congratulations!
Even better? Come join her in a discussion next week with top VCs about the future of healthcare. It's on February 10 at 3 p.m. ET/12 p.m. PT - Sign up to attend here.
In the span of just a few weeks, we've gotten definitive data on three more coronavirus vaccines, showing that they work. That brings the tally of effective shots to at least half a dozen.
And J&J filed its vaccine data for an emergency use authorization on Thursday. We should get a more complete picture of the vaccine in the coming weeks, before an outside panel of experts publicly scrutinize the data later this month.
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J&J's results-the one-dose vaccine is 66% effective at preventing COVID-19-are prompting a change in tone in the conversation around vaccines. Because the vaccine is still very good at preventing more serious cases of COVID-19, as well as deaths and hospitalizations, US health experts have started to emphasize that those are good reasons to get the shot, we've noticed.
In the meantime, the initial rollout of vaccines carries on in the US. The federal government is opening up more access to the shots at retail pharmacies. Shelby Livingston reports that CVS Health and Walgreens stand to make more than $650 million apiece from the rollout.
There's a major elephant in the room when it comes to talking about the progress we're making with vaccines: variants. Increasingly, vaccine developers are preparing upgrades to COVID-19 shots to better fend off emerging coronavirus variants.
One constant refrain I've heard over the past year is how much the pandemic has reinforced where people were expecting the healthcare industry to head. (More care will move online and to patients' homes, especially).
But in some ways, the pandemic has led investors to reevaluate how they invest in a particular space.
VCs, too, are looking at companies tackling infectious diseases in a new light.
Patricia Kelly Yeo pinpointed 6 biotechs that are gearing up to tackle future pandemics (while, of course, working on ways to confront the current pandemic).
