Washington (AFP)
The US government on Wednesday announced a new investment of $ 1 billion in the drug company Johnson & Johnson's Covid-19 vaccine project, with at least 100 million guaranteed doses.
Johnson & Johnson, via its subsidiary Janssen, had already received $ 456 million at the end of March; the new billion will fund a demonstration project for the large-scale manufacture of its experimental vaccine. The parties provide for a possible amendment of 200 million additional doses.
The check pushes Donald Trump's government investment to at least $ 9.4 billion in vaccine projects, including supply contracts signed with five companies to deliver at least 700 million doses, according to the AFP count.
Provided that the vaccines prove their effectiveness, the United States could theoretically obtain 100 million doses from four companies (Johnson & Johnson, Novavax, Pfizer / BioNTech, Sanofi / GSK) and 300 million doses from Oxford / AstraZeneca, the latter alliance having also signed or being in negotiations with other countries, in particular 400 million doses for the European Union.
The race for vaccines requires launching production in parallel with clinical trials and potentially at a loss, even before knowing whether the vaccine is effective.
The US government has also spent billions on building production sites, on companies making syringes and vials that will be needed to distribute future vaccine (s), not to mention support for the development of treatments.
The United States thus bought almost all of the production of the antiviral drug remdesivir until September, the first to have demonstrated a relative benefit for patients with Covid-19.
© 2020 AFP