A flurry of US contracts for promising novel coronavirus vaccine candidates, including a $2.1 billion deal with Sanofi and GlaxoSmithKline announced on Friday
WASHINGTON (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 31st July, 2020) A flurry of US contracts for promising novel coronavirus vaccine candidates, including a $2.1 billion deal with Sanofi and GlaxoSmithKline announced on Friday, aims to increase the probability that at least one vaccine will be ready for mass distribution by the end of 2020, Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Alex Azar said in a press release.
"The portfolio of vaccines being assembled for Operation Warp Speed increases the odds that we will have at least one safe, effective vaccine as soon as the end of this year," Azar said on Friday.
Under the Trump administration's Warp Speed program, the government will not only fund vaccine trials, but companies will also produce and stockpile hundreds of millions of doses of each experimental vaccine for distribution in hopes of winning approval for immediate distribution.
The $2.1 billion contract for a vaccine being jointly developed by Sanofi and GlaxoSmithKline marked the latest in a series of deals reportedly worth up to $8 billion.
The contract calls on Sanofi and GlaxoSmithKline to make and for the government to initially purchase 100 million doses, even as clinical trials are underway, with an option to buy another 500 million doses.
Several vaccine candidates in the Warp Speed program have already entered late-stage clinical trials.
AstraZeneca and Moderna, producers of two of the most promising vaccine candidates, have also said their vaccines could be ready by the end of the year, according to media reports.
