Clinical approval of nanotechnology-based SARS-CoV-2 mRNA vaccines: impact on translational nanomedicine

One year after the first human case of SARS-CoV-2, two nanomedicine-based mRNA vaccines have been fast-tracked, developed, and have received emergency use authorization throughout the globe with more vaccine approvals on the heels of these first two. Several SARS-CoV-2 vaccine compositions use nanotechnology-enabled formulations. A silver lining of the COVID-19 pandemic is that the fast-tracked vaccine development for SARS-CoV-2 has advanced the clinical translation pathway for nanomedicine drug delivery systems. The laboratory science of lipid-based nanoparticles was ready and rose to the clinical challenge of rapid vaccine development. The successful development and fast tracking of SARS-CoV-2 nanomedicine vaccines has exciting implications for the future of nanotechnology-enabled drug and gene delivery; it demonstrates that nanomedicine is necessary and critical to the successful delivery of advanced molecular therapeutics such as nucleic acids, it is establishing the precedent of safety and the population effect of phase four clinical trials, and it is laying the foundation for the clinical translation of more complex, non-lipid nanomedicines. The development, fast-tracking, and approval of SARS-CoV-2 nanotechnology-based vaccines has transformed the seemingly daunting challenges for clinically translating nanomedicines into measurable hurdles that can be overcome. Due to the tremendous scientific achievements that have occurred in response to the COVID-19 pandemic, years, perhaps even decades, have been streamlined for certain translational nanomedicines.