Feds Award Pharma $1.6B For “Warp Speed” Vaccine

Reuters reports:

The U.S. government has awarded Novavax $1.6 billion to cover testing, commercialization and manufacturing of a potential coronavirus vaccine in the United States, with the aim of delivering 100 million doses by January 2021.

Shares of Novavax surged more than 35% in the premarket on the news. The award is the biggest yet from “Operation Warp Speed,” the White House program aimed at accelerating access to vaccines and treatments to fight the coronavirus that causes Covid-19.

“What this Warp Speed award does is it pays for production of 100 million doses, which would be delivered starting in the fourth quarter of this year, and may be completed by January or February of next year,” Novavax Chief Executive Stanley Erck told Reuters.