Friday, April 17, 2020

Biotech company awarded $483 million to develop coronavirus vaccine

21 min ago

Biotech company awarded $483 million to develop coronavirus vaccine

Moderna Therapeutics headquarters in Cambridge, Massachusetts, in 2019.
Moderna Therapeutics headquarters in Cambridge, Massachusetts, in 2019. Kristoffer Tripplaar/Sipa USA/AP
The Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority, known as BARDA — a division of the US Department of Health and Human Services — awarded up to $483 million to accelerate development of the biotechnology firm Moderna’s experimental vaccine against the novel coronavirus, the company announced in a press release on Thursday.
“Vaccines are a critical tool for saving lives and stopping the spread of the SARS-CoV-2 virus,” BARDA Director Rick Bright said in the press release.
“Delivering a safe and effective vaccine for a rapidly spreading virus requires accelerated action," Bright said in part. "BARDA’s goal is to have vaccine available as quickly as possible."
Bright added that preparing now for "advanced stage clinical trials" and "production scale-up" while the vaccine candidate is currently in a phase 1 study could help accelerate the development of vaccines.
Some context: In late February, Moderna had shipped an experimental coronavirus vaccine to US government researchers six weeks after it started working on the immunization. Now a phase 1 study of the vaccine is being conducted by the National Institutes of Health. The study began on March 16. 
“We are thankful for BARDA’s support to fund the accelerated development of mRNA-1273, our vaccine candidate against SARS-CoV-2,” Stéphane Bancel, Moderna's CEO, said in the press release. “Time is of the essence to provide a vaccine against this pandemic virus. By investing now in our manufacturing process scale-up to enable large scale production for pandemic response, we believe that we would be able to supply millions of doses per month in 2020 and with further investments, tens of millions per month in 2021, if the vaccine candidate is successful in the clinic.” 
Moderna is among several companies that are currently testing vaccines, but it will take months — or more likely at least a year — to complete those trials.

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