joining us now to discuss, francis desouza, ceo of illumina.ompany has found 51 cases of the virus mutated in the united states. obviously, 51 is a lot, and we can assume that there are a lot more. what traits are you seeing of the new variant? how much more transmissible or dangerous is it? francis: you are absolutely right, emily. we found 51 cases here but it is clear there are many more in the u.s. it is a more transmissible variant of the virus. the thing that we need to do here in the u.s. is a lot more surveillance and so we can identify how many cases there are, but also new strains that are emerging. we are seeing a new strain called the south african strain. that's b-1351. although it has been identified in the u.k., we still have not identified it here in the u.s. emily: now, your work involves genetic sequencing. and i wonder, it has been suggested that the united states especially is dangerously blind to these new covid mutations, that we need a nationwide system that involves genetic sequencing , genetic testing in order to identi

illumina has tweeted some of it out. they're working with c.d.c. on this.ta is starting to be available. as the c.d.c. director said, we're not doing a lot of surveillance work right now. so we're probably not detecting the full scope of what is on the way in this country. >> brennan: americans now, aged two years old and up, will have to show proof of a negative covid test to re-enter this country, even if they're a citizen. will that make a difference, these travel restrictions, in reducing these other strains from permeating? >> doctor: it is going to have some impact. i'm it is hard to estimate how much it will really affect introduction into the united states. the bottom line is already here. even b1351351 is probably already in the state. and people who think mae might have been infected or exposed to somebody who has been infected, they're unlikely to get on a plane because they don't want to get caught in a quarantine. so i think it will be more of a deterrent. versus catching actual wous thatases.i nke needo these strains are here. the simple thing

meg tirrell has more. >> francis desouza ceo of illumina, thank you. tell us about the disconnect between what the street was looking for, whether it speaks to the strength of the business, if it is an affect of the pandemic tell us what to except for the coming near. >> the news we put out today is that we released our q 4 results, which were very strong. much stronger than the analysts expected frankly, stronger than we expected internally. we are coming into q 1, into 2021 with a lot of momentum. so the analysts when they put together their projections put together we believe for 2021 based on it being generally a post pandemic year the way we are seeing the busy involve and the market evolve is that we will really be dealing with the pandemic for the first half of 2021 and it was the second half of 2021 that we will see business return to normal. while we are really excited about the strength we saw building in the business from q 2 of last year to q 3 to q 4 as we looked into 2021, you know, we are projecting -- first we are reinstating guidance w

natalia let her know that lithuanian immigration has approved their entry visas is a huge relief for illumina she thanked the tell you for all her support but yes. i don't propose. to tell you has to hurry to pick up the activists children at the border their mother in luna has to go underground simply because she did the victims of police violence she faces criminal charges and the loss of the custody of her children. is barely 30 kilometers from vilnius the border yet delarue says a world apart e.u. member lithuania has opened its border to dissidents and their families in spite of the commune of ira spending most of my beautiful nothing hello i have to pick up refugees from bella roosts my antenna. done he was 6 years old his sister ksenia is 13. there's water if you want something to drink and juice in the back down there. you know it's up to the telia to direct ilona into lithuania again speller. look i love alone is going to try to slip across in her room all she wants natalia is a map if she doesn't make it she says she'll follow the route natalia shoot her. 11 or your children will gi

. >> reporter: now illumina is the largest maker of the machines. they are optimistic that the biden administration's covid plan specifically called for pandemic preparedness and more genome sequencing, shep. >> meg, the new york times is reporting that pfizer plans to ship fewer vaccine doses why and what is that >> reporter: well remember the bonus dose found in the vaccine vials. they were supposed to contain five vials but you could get six doses out and that means 20% more supply. well the times is reporting that pfizer formalized that sixth dose with the fda and said it will deliver fewer vials of the vaccine than planned under its contract same number of doses 200 million by july, i've reached out to u.s. health officials to confirm this, but that bonus we thought we got, it sounds like no such luck, shep >> well, we got new guidance from the cdc that you could now mix and match different vaccines >> reporter: right well you're supposed to avoid that if you can. the cdc said the pfizer and moderna covid vaccine is not interchangeable but it d

scott lgottlieb, cnbc contributor, on the board of pfizer and illumina, dr. scott gottlieb, thanks as always please give us your assessment much these new strains and help us understand what they mean for all of us. >> well look this virus is evolving all the time and these strains we're seeing now particularly the uk variant and the variant in brazil and south africa which is very concerning because they mutated a part of the virus we targeted with our drugs they are not the result of selective pressure in terms of virus trying to make itself more fit although it has become more fit. they seem to be variants that emerged in certain patient that had chronic infection and unable to clear it and the variants began to propagate. they led to secondary infectioninfections after that so this is inevitable this virus will mutate and evolve what it underscores right now is the game has changed when it comes to the vaccine roll out and the goal is probably get as vaccine into the popation right now. they are not prevalent in the u.k. based on the variant from the sequ

scott gottlieb now, former fda commissioner, cnbc commissioner, board member of pfizer and illumina. doctor, does this mean that the better summer we've been hoping for and have been advertised is more like a better fall or a better winter? >> not necessarily i think there's still time to improve upon the system. we need to work through the categories of people that we have prioritized for vaccination more quickly, get through these groups more quickly and we should have prioritized certain groups, so i think we've done the right thing there. but also expand the number of sites offering vaccination i think we need to push it through a retail channel and allow people to go into a pharmacy and get vaccinated, particularly elderly americans we ought to make these vaccines available to senior citizens and allow some of the supply to reach the demand for the vaccine. the task of getting people vaccinated, i think, is becoming more urgent with these new variants that are emerging it really is a race against time trying to get more vaccine into people's arms before these new variants become

francis desouza, the ceo of illumina thanks for being with us this morning. to try to track the new variants first start us off by telling what you're already doing. you've talked about a partnership with the cdc >> we have been involved with the pandemic since the very beginning. december 19, 2019, our teams were in wuhan working with the chinese cdc to first identify what was the origin of this pneumonia of unknown origin and then in january 2020 we were working with a team in shanghai who published the first viral genome since then we've been working around the world with cdcs, private labs, public health systems to track the outbreak of this pandemic. right now we are working with a number of governments around the world, the u.k. government as they sequence their outbreak and in the u.s. we're working with the cdc and labs like helix to do sequencing of the virus here in the u.s >> reporter: we know that through that partnership already with helix and cdc you've identified some of the first cases of that b 117 variant known as the u.k. variant. dr. fau d

he serves on the boards of illumina and pfizer, and serves as a cnbc contributor.s about additional vaccines coming, it's good news, but really not going to get here, most of it, until later this summer? >> that's right. i think if there's going to be a change in terms of the supply over the next two months, it's going to come from johnson & johnson. if johnson & johnson was to get authorized in february, they would have doses available in the lows tens of millions and in march, more tens of millions of doses. that's the near term hope that we could have a big inflection in supply in the first quarter pfizer has committed to 120 million, there's still a lot of supply between now and the end of march eng t i think there's a possibility if all goes right, we could vaccinate 7,500 people between now and the end of march. >> now and the end of march. that's hopeful, if we can get 75 million people wbetween now and the end of march, i would take that as a good start good news from the schools the cdc says there's been very little spread when schools are taking these pre

scott gottlieb who sits on the boards of pfizer and illumina and is a cnbc contributor.od to have you >> thanks a lot. >> the top line on johnons & johnson, 66% effective explain why you and everyone should hale that as good news when we have had other vaccines like the one you sit on the board of, pfizer, and moderna are more than 90% effective. >> this is a very good result. i don't think you can make apples to apples comparisons across the clinical trials they were read differently a lot of the subjects were in south africa and latin merica. different variants are circulating there that the vaccines aren't going to be as potent against the variants that are circulating in the u.s. right now are also different there may be some differentiation that make the vaccines less effective. we don't know. we are not doing sequencing at scale to answer that question. it is one dose it can be delivered in an you a steer setting and the immune protection it affordssomes to be durable. if you look at the data from the phase two study and also from this study the immune cells that t

he is a cnbc contribute and sits on the boards of pfizer and illumina dr. gottlieb, good to have you the me, that warning from boris johnson is only just a reason to speed up the vaccine distribution and administration even faster. is that happening? is there anything that president biden has done as far as executive orders and changes he has made that will speed it up even more so than under the trump administration >> yeah, i think right now the issue is going to become the supply i mean the issue to date be that distribution and having enough sites set up that people can access the vaccine and making sure those sites are set up in places where the people we want to reach are located so making sure that we distribute them evenly around the country, get into urban environments, places where you have issues with a lack of access to health care generally. but as we set up more sites -- and that's been happening -- we are going to run into problems with supply. supply is going to become the issue. the one thank that the biden administration has done that coul

scott gottleib he currently serves on the boards of illumina and pfizer and he's a cnbc contributor.e other variants that we know are circulating in the united states we've been hearing reports in four or five different states with a u.k. variant popping up is probably much broader than that now this new south african variant. the good news is we believe the vaccinations will be effective on these variants too. i did hear this morning that there is some concern that remdesiv remdesivir's product might not be as effective with the u.k. strain what do you know about that? >> one of the concerns about -- the south african strain is the more concerning one. the u.k. strain is more concerning in that it appears to be more contagious and more prevalent in the united states than we first suspected. the south african strain must be here as well the issue with the south african strain is it mutated the receptive binding and that's where the drug binds to. it's part of the areas where the ain't at th antigen tests might bind to. there was a study out yesterday showing that it escaped convalesc

he serves on the boards of illumina and pfizer. and said something like 13 million doses have been distributed to the states but only something like 4.3 million of those doses have actually made it into patients' arms at this point what's the slowdown? what's holding things up >> right the best way to think about this in my view is 40 million doses were made available to my knowledge in the month of december 5 million doses were injected into people's arms for some reason somewhere there's 35 million doses sitting on a shelf for various reasons i think the reality is we created a system with a lot of rules, with a lot of friction, with a lot of top down controls. there's a computer system sitting in the federal government that can literally track every single dose of vaccine, how long it's been in refrigeration and who's eligible to receive it and who's eligible to provide it. when you implement that kind of control, that kind of top down control you create friction in the system and it will slow down delivery i think there's an im

scott gottleib he currently serves on the boards of illumina and pfizer. he's a cnbc contributor.g to the state's data are late for the second dosage, where do we stand? how are things going >> i don't have direct insight into how florida is managing the vaccine. there is enough vaccine in the system, they should be allocating for it. there should be enough for first doses and second doses we're on a good steady stream. 30 million doses have been distributed to states. as of this tuesday there will be another 15 million available to states 5 million doses have been ordered by the states but not shipped for a total of 50 million. a little more than 10 million have been used there is a way to increase supply much we can try to increase production. we can do more to get efficiencies in the fill finishing product. so that's what the new incoming administration should be looking at, ways to work with manufacturers to get more production into the system the final point is if j&j's vaccine comes to the market, i have a lot of confidence for them to be able to produce that in large quanti