US Govt Doubles Spending On Biotech Firm Moderna's Potential Virus Vaccine Development To Nearly USD 1 Billion

The Trump administration has racked up its spending to a whooping USD 1 billion by declaring an addition of USD 472 million on top of the previously announced $483 million, the Moderna biotechnology company announced Sunday.

Photo: AFP (Representative Image)

In a major bid to expedite the development of a potential Covid-19 vaccine by an American biotech firm Moderna, the United States government has doubled its investment for the noble research mission to save millions of lives to nearly USD 1 billion. The US and world at large wait with bates breathes as the decisive final phase of clinical trials for coronavirus vaccine developed by Modera  gets underway from today. The Trump administration has racked up its spending to a whooping USD 1 billion by declaring an addition funding of USD 472 million on top of the previously announced $483 million, the Moderna biotechnology company announced Sunday. Welcoming the US govt's decision to boost the trials by via of a massive investment push for the trials, Moderna added that the mammoth investment was justified by the firm's decision, in conjunction with the government, to "significantly" expand a Phase Three clinical trial of a candidate vaccine to include 30,000 participants. In the first set of trials which was done on a limited scale, Moderna's experimental vaccine produced coronavirus antibodies, which should act as a resistnat mechanism and fend off the disease in the bodies of all 45 participants. In the expanded trial starting Monday, half the 30,000 participants will receive a 100-microgram dose of the vaccine, while the rest will be given a placebo. The United States has faced the wrath of the Covid-19 attack, suffering more than 146,000 coronavirus deaths, becoming the leading the world to lead an unwanted list It has announced massive investments in a huge effort to expedite vaccine development and get millions of Americans vaccinated by early next year. On Wednesday, the American-German BioNTech/Pfizer pharmaceutical alliance announced that the US government had committed $1.95 billion to procure 100 million doses of its eventual vaccine. With research laboratories around the world competing in an intense race to develop a first effective vaccine, Moderna seems to hold the lead as it enters a final round of clinical trials -- a decisive step in determining whether a vaccine is both effective and safe.