U.S. Vaccine Program Now Flush With Cash, but Short on Key Details
In Pennsylvania, a company developing an inhaled vaccine related to one already in wide use in India said that it tried in vain to get clarity about whether it was eligible for American government funding. The vaccine, the company said, may not have gone through advanced enough testing to qualify for the new pot of U.S. funding.
And in academic laboratories and start-up offices across the country, vaccine makers have been left in the dark about whether clinical trials that the Biden administration funds will be large and sophisticated enough to win over regulators who are still ironing out what they will require for clearance.
Federal officials, some of whom have become concerned about the leadership of the next-generation vaccine program, acknowledged that key questions remain about how the program will operate and how quickly it can deliver. Although some Biden administration officials hope to roll out new vaccine technology by fall 2024, many scientists believe doses are at least several years away.
“There’s not the money, there’s not the infrastructure, there’s not the support,” John Moore, a virologist at Weill Cornell Medicine, said of the push for improved vaccines. “So I’m not expecting any next-generation major things in the near future.”
Source: The New York Times
