Intelligence and Investigation Talent Moves (December 2020)

Yesterday, the COVID-19 vaccine developed by the University of Oxford and AstraZeneca was approved for use in the UK’s vaccination programme. Today, China’s State Food and Drug Administration also gave conditional approval to a vaccine developed by Sinopharm.

By the end of 2020, national regulatory authorities have approved six vaccines for public use. There are three categories of them: conventional inactivated vaccines, mRNA vaccines and viral vector vaccines.

Conventional inactivated vaccines: CoronaVac by Sinovac (left) BBIBP-CorV by Sinopharm (right)

mRNA vaccines: Tozinameran (a.k.a Comirnaty) by Pfizer-BioNTech (left) mRNA-1273 by Moderna (right)

Viral vector vaccines: Sputnik V by Russia’s Gamaleya Institute (left) AZD1222 by Oxford-AstraZeneca (right)

In the EU, Pfizer-BioNTech’s vaccine will be sold under the brand name “Comirnaty”. The meaning of “Comirnaty” is said to be a combination of the terms COVID-19, mRNA, community, and immunity. The name was developed by the naming agency Brand Institute.

For a pharma company, the vaccine brand name is an important intangible asset…