JNJ - 6 Companies Racing to Mass-Produce a Coronavirus Vaccine in 2021
Under normal circumstances, it would be considered highly unusual for a biotech or pharmaceutical company to start building out manufacturing capacity for a drug that hasn't yet been approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA). But 2020 has been anything but "normal." The United States government has already paid billions of dollars to healthcare companies working to develop a vaccine against the novel coronavirus, well ahead of their vaccine candidates' approvals. The federal government has a vested interest in the development of a safe and effective vaccine given that the virus has contributed to the deaths of nearly 900,000 people worldwide and wrought trillions of dollars in economic damage.
While we don't know for sure which vaccine candidates will be approved by the FDA, we have a very real sense of the large size of the vaccine market opportunity. But which companies are acquiring the manufacturing capacity needed to supply the world with a COVID-19 vaccine in 2021? The answers might surprise you.
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