Since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, there has been an incredible push for a vaccine against the virus to be made widely available across the world. Countries like the United States have been opening businesses prematurely in order to return to normalcy, but with the reopen has come an overwhelming surge of new cases; this surge has only increased the demand for a safe and effective vaccine.
While many pharmaceutical companies are working tirelessly to develop the vaccine, the most prominent manufacturer has become Moderna, a Cambridge, Massachusettes-based company. Moderna was awarded $483 million from BARDA that was allocated for research and development of the COVID vaccine. They’ve been working closely with the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, and they’ve anticipated spending an additional $410 million on research and the phase three clinical trial which began on July 27th.
The phase three trial involves 30,000 volunteers to test for safety and effectiveness, and Moderna expects the vaccine to be administered in two parts for maximum protection against COVID-19. Should the trial process go as planned, and as long as Moderna receives the amount of volunteers they need to proceed, the vaccine could be ready for production by January 2021. This would be the fastest vaccine development timeline in history.
Moderna, Pfizer, and Johnson & Johnson are the major biotech and pharmaceutical companies that have COVID vaccine deals with the US government, but for many, a major concern is the price of the vaccine. The presidents of both Moderna and Pfizer have announced that they would not sell the vaccines at the cost of production, and project that the two-dose vaccine could cost around $30 per dose. While this might sound cheap to some, it could leave those in a financial hard spot without the means to vaccinate themselves and their families. Because of the disproportionate rates of poverty in black and brown communities, the cost of the vaccine could perpetuate the high rates at which COVID-19 is affecting minority communities.
Enter the Gates Foundation: the Bill and Melina Gates foundation has decided to financially back the Serum Institute of India in their production of a COVID-19 vaccine. The goal of this partnership is to supply the vaccine to low- and middle-income countries and communities, and produce 100 million vaccines at $3 per dose.
Whether the vaccine is made available next month or next year, there is some concern about the potential greed of pharmaceutical distributers in the cost of each dose. While the federal government is financially funding the research and production of the vaccine, it is still up for debate whether the vaccine will be affordable for all Americans.
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