VIR - U.S. launches $5B program to speed up development of next-gen COVID vaccines

2023-04-10 22:25:44 ET

The U.S. government is launching a $5B-plus program to accelerate the development of new coronavirus vaccines and treatments, officials from the Biden administration and the Department of Health and Human Services ( HHS ) confirmed Monday.

An HHS official said “Project Next Gen” will encourage public-private collaborations, similar to the “Operation Warp Speed” program that helped develop and distribute COVID-19 vaccines under former President Donald Trump in 2020.

“We’ve begun surveying the landscape out there — assessing what vaccine candidates are available, [and] moving through what exciting technologies are there,” The Washington Post reported quoting Dawn O’Connell, the department’s assistant secretary for preparedness and response.

O’Connell said that the government has already started efforts to search for private sector partners. “We’ve begun surveying the landscape out there — assessing what vaccine candidates are available, [and] moving through what exciting technologies are there,” he added.

Leading COVID vaccine developers in the U.S.: Pfizer ( NYSE: PFE )/BioNTech ( BNTX ), Moderna ( MRNA ), Johnson & Johnson ( JNJ ), and Novavax ( NVAX ).

Other vaccine makers: Merck ( MRK ), Sanofi ( SNY ), and GSK ( GSK )

“Project Next Gen” will focus on three main goals: speeding up the development of vaccines that produce mucosal immunity and those that target new COVID variants and other coronaviruses, and developing long-lasting monoclonal antibodies.

“There’s a lot that government can do, the administration can do, to speed up those tools … for the American people,” Ashish Jha, the White House coronavirus coordinator, said.

As the pandemic advanced, monoclonal antibodies developed by Eli Lilly ( LLY )-AbCellera ( ABCL ), GSK( GSK )/ Vir Biotechnology ( VIR ), Roche ( OTCQX:RHHBY ) / Regeneron ( REGN ), and AstraZeneca ( AZN ) were found to be ineffective against an evolving virus.

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