Matthew Hepburn, MD, offers some insights on his time as vaccine development lead for Operation Warp Speed and the ability to develop a COVID-19 vaccine within a year.
This interview is part of an ongoing series looking back on history as well as the effects of the pandemic 5 years later.
Matthew Hepburn, MD, an infectious disease physician, worked in both the Biden and Trump Administrations. And during the pandemic, he held the role of vaccine development lead for Operation Warp Speed. This public-private sector initiative was created to accelerate the development, manufacturing, and distribution of COVID-19 vaccines, therapeutics, and diagnostics.
Operation Warp Speed was instrumental in developing COVID-19 vaccines in less than a year. Typically, vaccines take several years to develop, and when Hepburn first took the position, there was doubt it could be done more quickly.
“It can't be done. You know, it's going to take 5 to 10 years. There's no way it could be done faster than that and still maintain the highest quality,” Hepburn said people told him of trying to quickly develop, test, and roll out COVID-19 vaccines. “And it reminds me of my [Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency] DARPA experience. DARPA is all about setting incredibly ambitious goals, but then rolling up your sleeves and setting the milestones and the specifics so that you can actually accomplish those goals and rigorously execute.”
During his time on Operation Warp Speed, Hepburn says every hour counted. They tried to find ways to shorten processes when they could.
“It's the Apollo 13 quote, ‘failure was not an option.’ We knew that we had to succeed, and then we found a way to do that.”
Another aspect he points out is the importance of carrying out such a large project with effective vaccines that ensured safety for the participants involved in the studies.
“We were doing really massive phase 3 clinical trials—30,000 volunteers in these trials to show that these vaccines were safe and effective. That, and literally hundreds of other examples that we did to ensure that the vaccines were developed at the highest levels of quality."
In fact, the first of the vaccines—Moderna's, and Pfizer-BioNTech’s—were authorized in December of 2020. This was 9 months after the US was initially put on lockdown for the pandemic. Hepburn remembers those moments vividly when the vaccines were authorized.
Here are other articles from the series:
Pandemic Public Health Policy and Trust: Did We Lose the Latter Through the Former’s Actions?
The COVID-19 Pandemic: Significance of Screening and Industry's Response
With the Rise of COVID-19 Vaccines, a Greater Public Mistrust of Immunizations Has Taken Hold
A Hospital Relates Rise in Antimicrobial Resistance to Pandemic
“There were celebrations, and especially among the first responders—the healthcare workers that didn't have the option to work from home," Hepburn said. "They were out there treating patients every day, knowing that they were at a very high risk. I remember, we as a team, we used to see those celebrations, and it almost made us cry...I'll never forget those celebrations."
Hepburn remains optimistic about the core abilities of the US, especially when it comes to collective goals and the ability to innovate to solve major problems.
“It shows what America can do...what I like best about our country is that we still have this innate belief that anything is possible, and that if we have the right resources, and we have the right people, and we have the right commitment, that we can do anything—whether it was put a man on the moon or any of these other things.”
Hepburn recently transitioned to the private sector. In his current role as executive vice president of Research and Development at Panther Life Sciences, he will drive the company’s efforts to commercialize its patented Microarray Patch (MAP) technology, with a primary focus on reducing time-to-market and delivering the first commercial product to customers within the next 2 years. Panther is a start-up life sciences company based in New York City. 1
This is part 2 of a 2-part interview. In the first installment, Hepburn spoke of his new role at Panther and the company’s novel therapy delivery system.
Reference
1.Operation Warp Speed Leader Tapped as Panther Life Sciences’ New R&D Chief. EIN Presswire. March 24, 2025. Accessed April 18, 2025.
https://www.einpresswire.com/article/796443993/operation-warp-speed-leader-tapped-as-panther-life-sciences-new-r-d-chief
