Operation Warp Speed, Novavax, and Coronavirus

The purpose of “Operation Warp Speed” is to boost access to vaccines and treatments. The U.S. government allocated hundreds of millions of dollars to achieve this goal. Most importantly, the government awarded $1.6 billion as part of this program to Novavax. Authorities are ready to do whatever it takes to cope with the coronavirus pandemic as soon as possible.

It will use the money provided by the U.S. government to cover testing, commercialization, and manufacturing of a potential coronavirus vaccine in the U.S. Novavax shares soared on Tuesday thanks to this news.

Novavax and coronavirus vaccine

It is worth mentioning that, at the moment, the $1.6 billion awarded to Novavax is the biggest sum of money provided by Operation Warp Speed. This is not surprising, as authorities are ready to spend a lot of money to cope with the ongoing crisis and it is hard to achieve this goal without an effective vaccine.

Notably, the company will use the funds provided by the government to pay for the production of 100 million doses. Furthermore, this program will also cover the costs associated with the Phase 3 trial. Phase 3 is the final stage of human testing, to be clear. As a reminder, the trial could begin as early as October.

Moreover, the country’s government also provided financial support to other companies. For example, the government invested $456 million in Johnson & Johnson’s vaccine candidate in March. Additionally, the government also provided $486 million to Moderna several months ago.

Novavax also received an additional $388 million in funding for the COVID-19 vaccine from the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations.

Finally, the U.S. Department of Defense decided to allocate $60 million to support the manufacturing of 10 million doses of its vaccine in 2020.

Governments around the world have allocated hundreds of billions of dollars to overcome the coronavirus crisis.