In this video from Motley Fool Live recorded on Nov. 12, executives from Sorrento Therapeutics (SRNE.Q 33.33%) talk about how the company's COVID-19 therapeutic antibodies -- STI-1499 and STI-2020 -- can coexist with the coronavirus vaccines.
Since the recording, both Moderna (MRNA 0.89%) and the duo of Pfizer (PFE -0.19%) and BioNTech (BNTX -0.45%) have reported data showing their vaccines can reduce the likelihood of severe cases of COVID-19 compared to placebo.
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Brian Orelli: So are you worried about the vaccines creating quite a few less patients than we have with COVID-19 right now, plus you're going to have competition from all these other treatments that are getting approved before yours are?
Henry Ji: Actually, Mark, you want to comment on the vaccine?
Mark Brunswick: One of the issues that was being brought up by Dr. Fauci is that the Pfizer vaccine has to be distributed at minus 80 degrees centigrade. That's pretty cold. That's Antarctic type temperatures, below-Antarctic type temperatures. Most physicians offices do not have a freezer that could store that product. Most hospitals don't have a freezer that could store that product. Plus from the information that's being publicly made available, the half-life of the vaccine, that means the amount of time you can store the vaccine from manufacture to being given to a patient, is less than three months. You got to have a very efficient production-distribution chain in order to distribute this vaccine.
Ji: The other thing, Mark, I'm going to add to chime in, is if you have a vaccine that takes two shots and that effect kicks in 45 days, what happens in between the 45 days you got infected? What happens to that? You need a therapeutic intervention. Neutralizing antibody is instant. The moment you inject it or you nasal application, you have instantaneous type of effect and you don't need to wait for 45 days before the vaccination effect kicks in, so firstly.
Secondly, the immuno-compromised or elderly, they may not have that strong immuno-response to a vaccination. That is the most at-risk population, which is very large probably. Besides, there is a group of people would never using the vaccine no matter what. I think there is a complementary and potentially synergistically in the marketplaces for neutralizing antibody and vaccine. It's not mutually exclusive.
Brunswick: I would like to point out that the FDA had an advisory committee on vaccines about three weeks ago. The advisors in that committee were not interested in just preventing infections; they want to see prevention of serious consequences of an infection. I'm not sure if this trial that's reporting the results had any serious infections.
Orelli: I don't think that Pfizer and BioNTech have reported the severity of the infections yet.
Brunswick: Right, and that's what the advisors wanted to see, because they're not interested in preventing someone from getting a flu-like disease.
