HHS announces billion-dollar push toward experimental COVID-19 vaccine
The U.S. Department of Health and fitness and Human Expert services announced Tuesday that it would make investments $1.six billion towards the business advancement of a COVID-19 investigational vaccine by the Maryland-based mostly company Novavax.
HHS also announced that it would offer $450 million to Regeneron to manufacture and source the firm’s antiviral antibody remedy, REGN-COV2.
The clinical trials for both the vaccine and the remedy are continue to underway.
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The funding assignments have been carried out as a joint exertion concerning HHS and the Department of Defense as section of Procedure Warp Velocity, the Trump administration’s initiative to provide 300 million doses of COVID-19 vaccine by January 2021.
“Depending on achievement in clinical trials, today’s $1.six billion financial investment supports our most recent vaccine applicant, staying created by Novavax, all the way as a result of clinical trials and manufacturing 100 million doses for the American individuals,” mentioned HHS Secretary Alex Azar.
The $1.six billion, according to Novavax, will be put towards clinical advancement and trials, the institution of huge-scale manufacturing, and the delivery of 100 million vaccine doses. As noted by the New York Moments, Novavax has not nevertheless brought a merchandise to market place.
The government will personal any doses of the vaccine and remedy resulting from the assignments, HHS mentioned.
“If these doses are utilized in a COVID-19 vaccination marketing campaign, the vaccine would be accessible to the American individuals at no price,” mentioned the company in a push launch. “As is customary with government-obtained vaccines, healthcare industry experts could demand insurers for the price of administering the vaccine.”
Regeneron mentioned in a push assertion that, need to the U.S. Foods and Drug Administration grant crisis use authorization or merchandise acceptance for the remedy, “the government has committed to generating doses from these tons accessible to the American individuals at no price and would be responsible for their distribution.”
“This settlement with Regeneron is the to start with of a selection of Procedure Warp Velocity awards to assist potential therapeutics all the way as a result of to manufacturing, permitting speedier distribution if trials are profitable,” mentioned Azar.
HHS announced on Could 15 that fourteen vaccine candidates had been selected under Procedure Warp Velocity with the intention of staying narrowed down to about 7. The company had already allocated hundreds of tens of millions in funds to assist the advancement of Johnson & Johnson, Moderna and AstraZeneca’s applicant vaccines.
The HHS announcement arrives on the heels of the FDA’s conclusion to grant crisis use authorization to a issue-of-care 15-moment COVID-19 antigen test manufactured by Becton Dickinson.
On Tuesday, having said that, the Food and drug administration also issued a warning about wrong optimistic charges from a different Becton Dickinson COVID-19 test, which had been granted an crisis use authorization in April.
Kat Jercich is senior editor of Healthcare IT News.
Twitter: @kjercich
Healthcare IT News is a HIMSS Media publication.
