The US is also helping fund the Oxford/AZ vaccine through its Operation Warp Speed program:
Fact Sheet: Explaining Operation Warp Speed
The agreement with the Oxford/AZ vaccine is to make 300 million doses of the vaccine available to the US. We gave them $1.2 BILLION for the development and manufacture of the vaccine.
"Manufacturing: The federal government is making investments in the necessary manufacturing capacity at its own risk, giving firms confidence that they can invest aggressively in development and allowing faster distribution of an eventual vaccine. Manufacturing capacity for selected candidates will be advanced while they are still in development, rather than scaled up after approval or authorization. Manufacturing capacity developed will be used for whatever vaccine is eventually successful, if possible given the nature of the successful product, regardless of which firms have developed the capacity."
"Distribution: Before the countermeasures are approved or authorized, the program will build the necessary plans and infrastructure for distribution.
HHS plans for a tiered approach to vaccine distribution, which will build on allocation methodology developed as part of pandemic flu planning and be adjusted based on experience during the first wave of the COVID-19 response, data on the virus and its impact on populations and the performance of each vaccine, and the needs of the essential workforce. OWS will expand domestic manufacturing and supplies of specialized materials and resources, such as glass vials, that can be necessary for distribution. DoD’s involvement will enable faster distribution and administration than would have otherwise been possible.
Select actions to support OWS distribution efforts include:
- May 12: DoD and HHS announced a $138 million contract with ApiJect for more than 100 million prefilled syringes for distribution across the United States by year-end 2020, as well as the development of manufacturing capacity for the ultimate production goal of over 500 million prefilled syringes in 2021.
- June 9: HHS and DoD announced a joint effort to increase domestic manufacturing capacity for vials that may be needed for vaccines and treatments:
- $204 million to Corning to expand the domestic manufacturing capacity to produce an additional 164 million Valor Glass vials each year if needed.
- $143 million to SiO2 Materials Science to ramp up capacity to produce the company’s glass-coated plastic container, which can be used for drugs and vaccines."
. I'm a number graft person. 