White House preps to pump billions into mRNA vaccine manufacturing capacity — but Moderna and Pfizer will have to buy in
by Josh Sullivan
Associate Editor
EndPoints
The White House released early details this week on its plan to pump billions of new dollars in mRNA vaccine manufacturing to increase the number of doses abroad and prepare for the next pandemic too.
“Importantly, initial production could provide more mRNA COVID vaccines for the world,” coronavirus response coordinator Jeffrey Zients said Thursday at a media briefing. “The goal of this program is to expand existing capacity by an additional billion doses per year, with production starting by the second half of 2022.”
In theory, the program would allow the US government to join forces with the brains of scientific researchers at the top mRNA companies to help produce doses within six to nine months. But Pfizer and Moderna have yet to signal that they’re participating.
“We hope companies step up and act quickly to take us up on this opportunity to expand production of mRNA vaccines for the current pandemic and set us up to react quickly to any future pandemic threats,” Zients said. “We know vaccinations are the best way to accelerate our path out of the pandemic.”
Meanwhile, a bill has been introduced in the House of Representatives to establish a competitive grant program to award money to manufacturers with the goal of establishing training centers and upping production capacity in order to provide more mRNA vaccines for the world.
The bill will permit the US Department of Health and Human Services to solicit interested companies with experience in mRNA manufacturing to identify chances to scale up
