Scientists Receive Nobel Prize for Development That Led to COVID-19 Vaccines

Katalin Kariko and Dr. Drew Weissman, both of the University of Pennsylvania, were awarded the prize.

Nobel Committee member Thomas Perlmann speaks to reporters in front of a picture of this year's laureates Katalin Kariko and Dr. Drew Weissman during the announcement of the winners of the 2023 Nobel Prize in Medicine at the Karolinska Institute in Stockholm, Sweden, on Oct. 2, 2023. Jonathan Nackstrand/AFP via Getty Images

Two scientists who executed a development that helped lead to the Pfizer and Moderna COVID-19 vaccines received a Nobel Prize on Oct. 2.

Katalin Kariko and Dr. Drew Weissman jointly received the Nobel Prize in medicine for developing a way to tamp down the body’s inflammatory response to messenger ribonucleic acid (mRNA), which was later used in the Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna COVID-19 shots.