Building A COVID-19 Vaccine Company In A Few Months

By Rob Wright, Chief Editor, Life Science Leader
Follow Me On Twitter @RfwrightLSL

It was March 2020. And as the lockdowns loomed, Mei Mei Hu, J.D., was sitting at home thinking, “If we get locked down, I’m going to spend more time with the kids. We’re going to have time to read.” The cofounder and CEO of United Neuroscience (UNS) was daydreaming of all the things she could catch up on. Can you blame her? Ever since finishing Harvard Law she’s been running pretty much full tilt. Hu oversaw the launch of one of the first endobody vaccines in the world and the successful spinout of three companies, started a family, and along the way was named to Time’s 100 Next list, Fortune’s 40 Under 40, and Young Global Leaders of the World Economic Forum. But then fellow UNS cofounder — and Hu’s husband — Lou Reese said, “We have a moral responsibility to do something that works toward eliminating unnecessary suffering and help combat the pandemic,” and they and their teams have been racing on “COVID time” ever since. This is how the two built a COVID-19 vaccine company in the middle of a pandemic.