HHS reveals billion-dollar push toward experimental COVID-19 vaccine

The U.S. Department of Health and Human being Provider revealed Tuesday that it would invest $1.6 billion toward the business advancement of a COVID-19 investigational vaccine by the Maryland-based company Novavax.

HHS likewise announced that it would supply $450 million to Regeneron to produce and supply the business’s antiviral antibody treatment, REGN-COV2.

The medical trials for both the vaccine and the treatment are still underway.

The funding tasks were undertaken as a collaboration between HHS and the Department of Defense as part of Operation Lightning speed, the Trump administration’s effort to provide 300 million doses of COVID-19 vaccine by January2021

” Depending on success in medical trials, today’s $1.6 billion financial investment supports our latest vaccine prospect, being developed by Novavax, all the way through medical trials and production 100 million doses for the American individuals,” stated HHS Secretary Alex Azar.

The $1.6 billion, according to Novavax, will be put toward clinical advancement and trials, the facility of massive production, and the delivery of 100 million vaccine doses. As reported by the New York City Times, Novavax has not yet brought an item to market

The federal government will own any dosages of the vaccine and treatment arising from the tasks, HHS said.

” If these dosages are used in a COVID-19 vaccination project, the vaccine would be offered to the American individuals at no cost,” said the firm in a news release. “As is popular with government-purchased vaccines, healthcare experts might charge insurance providers for the expense of administering the vaccine.”

Regeneron said in a press declaration that, must the U.S. Food and Drug Administration grant emergency usage permission or item approval for the treatment, “the government has actually devoted to making dosages from these lots available to the American people at no charge and would be responsible for their circulation.”

” This arrangement with Regeneron is the first of a number of Operation Terminal velocity awards to support possible rehabs all the method through to production, enabling faster distribution if trials achieve success,” said Azar.

HHS revealed on Might 15 that 14 vaccine candidates had been chosen under Operation Warp Speed with the objective of being narrowed down to about 7. The company had currently assigned numerous millions in funds to support the development of Johnson & Johnson, Moderna and AstraZeneca’s candidate vaccines.

The HHS announcement begins the heels of the FDA’s decision to approve emergency situation usage authorization to a point-of-care 15- minute COVID-19 antigen test produced by Becton Dickinson.

On Tuesday, however, the FDA also provided an alerting about incorrect favorable rates from a different Becton Dickinson COVID-19 test, which had been approved an emergency situation use authorization in April.

Kat Jercich is senior editor of Health care IT News.

Twitter: @kjercich

Health Care IT News is a HIMSS Media publication.