US Spent $9 Billion To Develop COVID-19 Vaccine And It’s Not Done Spending

The U.S. government has spent more than $9 billion on the development of a COVID-19 vaccine, with the majority of the money going to seven companies, USA Today reported.

The bulk of the federal funding has been given to Pfizer, AstraZeneca, Sanofi and GSK, Moderna, and Novavax – most of which are testing vaccine candidates on people today.

The biggest recipient of the federal funding has been Sanofi and GSK, which received nearly $31 million in April and another $2.1 billion in July to complete the development and manufacture of 100 million doses of a vaccine by year’s end. The government also has the option to buy another 500 million doses in 2021.

The majority of the funding will be used for Phase 1 and Phase 2 trials to start in September and Phase 3 clinical trials to start before the end of 2020.

Pfizer and BioNTech will also receive funding from the federal government in the amount of $1.95 billion if it wins approval from the Food and Drug Administration and produces 100 million doses of a vaccine by the end of 2020. The government also has the option to buy 500 million additional doses next year.

The vaccine from Pfizer and BioNTech was developed without government assistance and has started a Phase 2/Phase 3 trial, which is being self-funded.

Novavax also entered into a $1.6 billion agreement with the government to produce 300 million doses of a vaccine by as early as the end of 2020. The company has completed Phase 1 clinical trials and expects to enter Phase 3 trials by this fall.

The funding will also be used to demonstrate that large-scale manufacturing of the vaccine is possible.

Janssen Research & Development, a subsidiary of parent company Johnson & Johnson, received $465 billion in March from the government for research and Phase 1 trials of its vaccine and another $1 billion in August to produce 100 million doses of the vaccine. Phase 3 testing of the vaccine is set to begin late this year.

AstraZeneca, in collaboration with Oxford University, has a government contract for $1.2 billion to produce 300 million doses of a vaccine by as soon as the end of this year.

The vaccine is expected to enter Phase 3 trials by the end of September.

Also receiving government funding is Moderna, which has received $995 million to develop a vaccine. The company has entered Phase 3 trials of the vaccine and received its government funding in three doses - $430 million in April, $53 million in May, and almost $472 million in July.

The company has partnered with Lonza to produce 600 million to 1 billion doses of a vaccine by 2021.

Merck and IAVI USA have also teamed up and received $38 million in funding in April to develop their vaccine.