US grants $1.6 billion for Covid-19 vaccine candidate

Unites States announced that they are granting $1.6 billion fund to a candidate for coronavirus vaccine. It's for the development of the said possible vaccine. It will be produced by biotech firm Novavax, the largest amount awarded under Operation Warp Speed.

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Novavax is a late-stage biotechnology company that promotes improved global health through the discovery, development, and commercialization of innovative vaccines to prevent serious infectious diseases.

"We are honored to partner with Operation Warp Speed to move our vaccine candidate forward with extraordinary urgency in the quest to provide vital protection to our nation's population," said Stanley Erck, the company's president and CEO.

Novavax agrees to deliver 100 million doses of its vaccine potentially by the end of the year. It is under the terms of its agreement with the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) and Department of Defense.

The final stage, Phase 3 trial of its vaccine called NVX-CoV2373 is set to take place this fall.

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The amount awarded to Novavax by the US is higher than the $1.2 billion given to the Oxford University vaccine that is being developed by AstraZeneca.

United States also was providing $450 million to Regeneron Pharmaceuticals for its experimental COVID-19 treatment or double-antibody cocktail.

The drug is called REGN-COV2. It is a combination of two antibodies that block the coronavirus' spike protein. The company uses a multi-antibody strategy to decrease the chances that the virus will mutate in order to evade the blocking action of a single antibody, an approach it detailed in a recent study in Science.

The company said that the experimental treatment is entering late stage of human trials. It expects a range of 70,000 to 300,000 potential treatment doses or 420,000 to 1,300,000 prevention doses to be available from these lots, with initial doses to be ready as early as the end of summer.

Last year, a triple antibody cocktail developed by Regeneron was shown to be effective against the Ebola virus.