Trump Administration has reportedly selected 5 pharmaceutical companies as the likely candidates to develop a vaccine for SARS-COV-2, the Coronavirus that causes COVID-19 infection.
Moderna, AstraZeneca, Pfizer, Merck & Co, and Johnson & Johnson make up the 5 member list of potential vaccine makers.
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What this means is these companies will now receive additional funds from the US government, logistical support, and help in conducting clinical trials for their candidate vaccines.
The decision will be formally announced at the White House in the coming weeks.
Interestingly, Trump administration has not selected Sanofi, Novavax, and Inovio, 3 drug makers at advance vaccine development stage out of the 100 potential vaccines under development around the world.
Based on several reports, the US government aims to deliver an effective vaccine before the end of 2020. To achieve this goal, it will start mid-stage clinical trials in July which will involve 100,000 to 150,000 volunteers.
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Director at the US National Institutes of Health (NIH), Dr. Francis Collins, believes that Moderna and AstraZeneca will be the first to begin mid-stage testing out of the 5 medical firms selected by Trump administration.
Dr. Anthony Fauci, Director at the US National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, has once again expressed optimism that the US will have a couple of hundred million doses of an effective COVID-19 by the start of next year.
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