Can Vaccine Development Weather Political Storms?

InnovationScienceCan Vaccine Development Weather Political Storms?ByChristine Ro,Contributor.Forbes contributors publish independent expert analyses and insights. Christine Ro is a journalist covering science and development.Follow AuthorApr 22, 2026, 08:23am EDT--:-- / --:--This voice experience is generated by AI. Learn more.This voice experience is generated by AI. Learn more.International training on mRNA vaccine production at the Vaccine Research Center of the National Institutes of Health, in 2023 (Photo by: NIH-NIAID/Image Point FR/BSIP/Universal Images Group via Getty Images)BSIP/Universal Images Group via Getty ImagesIt’s been a tough five quarters to be in the vaccine business. Amidst federal funding cuts to vaccine research, attempts to reshape childhood immunization guidelines, and flip-flopping on vaccine approval, the people who research, make and invest in vaccines are nervous.This is already shifting decision-making. Though a number of pharmaceutical companies are being careful with their language, others have been more forthright. Shockwaves reverberated when Moderna’s CEO Stéphane Bancel told Bloomberg in January, “We do not foresee investing in a new Phase III study in the foreseeable future in vaccines because you cannot make a return on investment if you don’t have access to the U.S. market, or because of delays regulatory-wise, or because your market is much smaller because you don’t have a recommendation by the government.” Bancel added, “There’s a lot of vaccines that I think would have huge impact on public health that we’re unfortunately not being able to take to Phase III.” Richard Hughes, a health lawyer at the firm Epstein Becker Green and previously a Moderna executive, is unsurprised by such decisions to pause work on vaccines for infectious diseases. “I fully expected [that] would be the case when you create this sort of unpredictable environment,” he comments. To reduce risks, Hughes believes that companies are “going to restrain the...