Development of vaccines usually takes years, but drug makers whittled the process down to a matter of months amid a concerted response to a global health threat.

More patient-centric trial designs also may be coming due to pandemic-related advances, Marks says.

An unexpected breakthrough announced by Cellectis for its experimental off-the-shelf CAR-T therapy has raised the possibility that much-hyped therapies using a patient's own cells, under development at Kite Pharma and Juno Therapeutics may become commercially obsolete before they even reach the market.