2020 was devastating. It was also a year of firsts. Fueled by decades of research and widespread global cooperation, the first mRNA-based vaccines against SARS-CoV-2 were produced, tested, and injected mere months after COVID-19 hit. Science spoke, telling us these vaccines—the first mRNA drug products—were effective at protecting against this prolific killer. Production processes were put into action at lightning speed, but these were far from optimized.
