Pfizer launches United States Covid pilot program address the challenges posed by the storage and distribution of its vaccine: Pfizer has launched a pilot program in four U.S. states to address the distribution challenges its vaccine faces, according to Reuters.

Although the vaccine has aroused optimism around the world after announcing that the results of the latest phase of its trials suggest more than 90% effectiveness in preventing contact, in all countries there are concerns about the storage requirements of vaccine doses that require temperatures of 70 degrees below zero.

"It is difficult for vaccines to arrive in optimal conditions," explained Miguel Fernández, the CEO of Merck, at the Smart Business Meeting held by Business Insider Spain to delve into the challenges and opportunities of the pharmaceutical industry.

"In Spain and in general in advanced countries we have powerful logistics networks to guarantee the cold chain," said Fernández, who called for collaboration in the sector to ensure that Third World countries can access vaccines.

However, the World Health Organization has warned that no country is prepared for the storage and transport of this vaccine.

The minister of Health, Salvador Illa, has not been concerned about the challenges that distribution may present. "The vaccine has Conservation characteristics that make it unique, but the company itself has foreseen this and has provided the logistical means that will make us not have any type of problem in that sense neither in our country nor in any country of the European Union", he assured.

"We hope that the results of this vaccine delivery pilot program will serve as a model for other U.S. states and international governments, as they prepare to implement effective COVID-19 vaccine programs," Pfizer said in a statement.

Pfizer launches United States Covid pilot program

The four states will not receive vaccine doses earlier than other states under the pilot program, nor will they receive any differential consideration, the company has warned.

The pharmaceutical company is also working on other long-term alternatives and is shuffling the possibility of producing a version of its powder vaccine that would need only standard refrigeration by 2021.

Pfizer will soon seek emergency authorization from the FDA and the European Drug Agency to achieve approval this year and begin distribution as soon as possible, so it is urgent that health systems be prepared for the vaccine.

The European Union has closed an agreement with Pfizer to receive 300 million doses of the vaccine thanks to the agreement of Advance Purchase of vaccines against COVID-19. Spain has 20 million doses (with which 10 million people can be vaccinated) and the minister assured that the first doses will arrive at the beginning of next year.

Pfizer launches United States Covid pilot program

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Airbnb'S IPO filing reveals how the pandemic has devastated Your Business

After months of waiting, Airbnb made public the documents of its public offer of sale (IPO) on Monday.

The company earned a profit of 219,3 million dollars (184.7 million euro) in the third quarter on revenue of 1,300 million dollars ($1.095 billion euros), after a net loss of 575,6 million (485 million euros) in the second quarter on revenue of 334,8 million dollars (282,1 million euros), as he saw a slight upturn in bookings after a precipitous drop in this summer.

The company's third-quarter revenue fell nearly 18% compared to the same quarter last year - though better than third-quarter revenue from major competitors such as Booking.com (48% less) and Expedia (58% less), as well as the first 2 quarters of Airbnb in 2020–.

But Airbnb's profitable third quarter was driven in part by severe spending-cutting measures and revealed how the pandemic has devastated its business.

In the first 9 months of the year, the firm had a revenue of 2,500 million dollars ($2.105 million euros), a 32% to 3,700 million (3.116 million euros) in the same period of the previous year, while its losses rose to 696,9 million dollars (587 million euros) from the 322,8 million (271.8 million euros). The platform reported annual revenues of 4,800 million dollars (4,043 million euros) in 2019.

The company, like the rest of the industry, has been hit hard by the travel stoppage this year. So far in 2020, travelers have booked 146.9 million nights or experiences through Airbnb, 41% less than in the same period last year. Airbnb said it experienced the biggest decline during the second quarter, with a 67% year-on-year reduction in bookings, while the business recovered slightly in the third quarter with a 28% decline over the same quarterly period last year.

However, Airbnb said it expects further year-on-year declines in bookings and cancellations during the fourth quarter as COVID-19 cases are on the rise.

The platform cited the pandemic among a long list of risk factors that could have a negative impact on your financial picture, including the slowing of income growth, a regulatory landscape uncertain as more local governments pass laws aimed at curbing or taxing short-term rentals, nearly 2,000 million dollars (1.685 million euros) in debt and the lingering questions about their profitability.

The company plans to list its shares on the Nasdaq under the symbol "ABNB" and will offer an unspecified number of Class A common shares, but the filing revealed that the company has a complicated stock structure that includes 4 classes: Class A, Class B, Class C and Class H.

Morgan Stanley and Goldman Sachs are the leading banks of the offer, through which the company said it expects to raise 1,000 million dollars (842 million euros). The startup seeks to raise around 3.000 million dollars (2.527 million euros), according to The New York Times Dealbook.

Airbnb was last valued at 18,000 million dollars (15,160 million euros), according to The Wall Street Journal. It was filed confidentially to go public in September and will likely be one of the biggest deals this year.

The company's decision put an end to speculation about how the pandemic would affect the timing of its IPO, and will likely ease some of the pressure the company has faced for years from employees whose stock options would begin to expire this month if the company did not go public.

The platform has had a long and sometimes bumpy road to its OPV, especially over the past few months, when the coronavirus pandemic wreaked havoc on the industry.

When travel restrictions came in early March, the company's revenue plummeted 80%, CEO Brian Chesky told Business Insider in September. Bookings in Beijing fell as much as 96%, according to AirDNA, forcing it to freeze all marketing expenses and almost all hires.

Depleting its cash reserves, the firm raised deuda 1 billion (842 million euros) in debt and equity financing from Silver Lake and Sixth Street Partners at an interest rate of more than 10% and a valuation of 1 18 billion (15,160 million euros), almost 50% less than its previous valuation of 3 31 billion (26,118 million euros), the Journal reported. A week later, the company raised an additional deuda 1 billion in debt from the 2 banks and other investors at an interest rate of 7.5%.

In May, the multinational still expected its revenue for the year to be less than half of its 2019 earnings, forcing it to take even more drastic action: it laid off 1,900 employees (25% of its staff), faced backlash from hosts over its first covid-19 cancellation policies, and halted its investments in ambitious projects around luxury accommodation and travel content production to focus on its core business.

The business recovered somewhat during the third quarter, in part due to Chesky's bets on post-pandemic travel trends, which have so far paid off. He predicted that people would flock to rural destinations rather than big cities, and that he would prefer private spaces to crowded ones like hotels.

Those benefits also came as domestic travel and the wider economy recovered. Airbnb reduced total expenses to just over 3,000 million dollars (2,527 million euros) for the first 9 months of this year, 22% less than the 3,900 million dollars (3,286 million euros) of the same period last year.

While the IPO may be a relief for the platform's early investors and employees, the company still has significant challenges ahead and will come under even greater scrutiny as a public company.

Investors will likely focus heavily on the company's path to profitability. The firm said it had some quarters of profitability before the pandemic– the second and third quarters of 2018, as well as the third quarter of 2019-but acknowledged that it "has incurred net losses in every year since its inception, and we may not be able to achieve profitability."