White House Winnows Sprawling Vaccine Field Down To Five Top Candidates But Hurdles Remain
President Donald Trump has been eager to get a vaccine to market by the end of the year, but scientists have viewed that goal as extremely optimistic if not unrealistic. Vaccine development is notoriously difficult and time-consuming; the record is four years, and a decade is not unusual. In other news: the global race could lead to a Sputnik moment; the FDA struggles to remain neutral; a watchdog group calls for an investigation into Moderna's stocks; and more.
The New York Times:
Trump Narrows Search For Coronavirus Vaccine To Five Firms
The Trump administration has selected five companies as the most likely candidates to produce a vaccine for the coronavirus, senior officials said, a critical step in the White House’s effort to deliver on its promise of being able to start widespread inoculation of Americans by the end of the year. By winnowing the field in a matter of weeks from a pool of around a dozen companies, the federal government is betting that it can identify the most promising vaccine projects at an early stage, speed along the process of determining which will work and ensure that the winner or winners can be quickly manufactured in huge quantities and distributed across the country. (Weiland and Sanger, 6/3)
The Washington Post:
The Global Race For A Coronavirus Vaccine Could Lead To This Generation’s Sputnik Moment
With testing underway on five experimental vaccines in China and four in the United States, the race to produce a vaccine for covid-19 has taken on political dimensions that echo jockeying for technological dominance during the Cold War, including the space race after the launch of Sputnik in 1957. The same day in mid-March that the United States launched human testing of its first experimental coronavirus vaccine, scientists in China announced their own trial would begin. (Johnson and Dou, 6/3)
Politico:
FDA Struggles To Remain Independent Amid Race For Virus Cure
Peter Marks was a natural fit for a new White House project tasked with developing a coronavirus vaccine. The cancer specialist spent nearly a decade at the Food and Drug Administration, most recently overseeing the office that approves vaccines and gene therapies. But Marks quit last month just days after joining President Donald Trump's Operation Warp Speed, a venture partnering government with private companies in the vaccine race. He returned to his old FDA job full time after a clash with White House coronavirus coordinator Deborah Birx about how the government was prioritizing potential vaccines during a tense meeting of the White House coronavirus task force, according to three people familiar with the event. (Owermohle, 6/3)
NPR:
Coronavirus Vaccine Candidates To Enter Wide Testing In Humans In July
As the number of confirmed coronavirus cases globally approaches 6.5 million, scientists are racing to develop a vaccine. Currently, there are 10 vaccine candidates in development around the world that are in the beginnings of human trials. Some will be ready for large-scale testing as soon as the beginning of July, says Dr. Francis Collins, director of the National Institutes of Health and a member of the White House coronavirus task force. (McCammon, 6/4)
Stat:
Moderna Released Scant Covid-19 Data To Prevent A Leak, CEO Says
The biotech company Moderna invited the scrutiny of the world last month when it withheld key data on its in-development vaccine for the novel coronavirus. Stéphane Bancel, the company’s CEO, said Wednesday that Moderna’s decision to be vague was a matter of respecting federal securities laws and the rules of scientific journals. (Garde, 6/3)
The Hill:
Watchdog Group Wants SEC To Investigate Coronavirus Vaccine Company Moderna
An anti-corruption watchdog group is calling on the Securities and Exchanges Commission (SEC) to investigate top executives at the biotech company Moderna for allegedly manipulating the stock market and possible insider trading. In a letter dated June 1 and released Wednesday, the group Accountable.US said the trades, which centered around an announcement about promising vaccine trial results, are suspicious and urged the SEC to investigate. (Weixel, 6/3)
Stat:
Oxford, AstraZeneca Covid-19 Deal Reinforces 'Vaccine Sovereignty'
Sovereignty, in its most distilled form, is the power to decide who will live and who must die. Both U.S. and U.K. heads of state have increasingly invoked sovereignty as a dominant discourse in their economic and foreign policies. President Trump used the words “sovereign” or “sovereignty” 21 times in his inaugural address to the United Nations General Assembly in September 2017. More recently, Prime Minister Boris Johnson characterized Britain’s exit from the European Union as “recaptured sovereignty.” (Ahmed, 6/4)
Reuters:
Brazil To Start Testing Oxford Vaccine Against The Coronavirus This Month
Brazil this month will start testing an experimental vaccine against the novel coronavirus being developed by researchers at the University of Oxford and AstraZeneca Plc, Brazil’s health surveillance agency Anvisa and the Federal University of Sao Paulo (Unifesp) said. Anvisa authorized the testing late on Tuesday. Some 2,000 people will participate in the trial, which will be conducted with the support of the Health Ministry, Unifesp said. (Simoes, 6/3)
Reuters:
British PM Johnson Hosts Global Vaccine Summit, Calls For Funding
British Prime Minister Boris Johnson will host a global vaccine summit on Thursday, urging nations to pledge funding for vaccinations against infectious diseases to help the poorest countries tackle the coronavirus crisis. Representatives of more than 50 countries, including 35 heads of state or government, will come together virtually in London to raise funds for the GAVI vaccine alliance, a public-private global health partnership. (6/3)
Reuters:
EU To Use $2.7 Billion Fund To Buy Promising COVID-19 Vaccines
The European Union is preparing to use an emergency 2.4-billion- euro ($2.7 billion) fund to make advance purchases of promising vaccines against the new coronavirus, EU officials told Reuters. The move was discussed at a meeting of EU ambassadors on Wednesday, after Germany, France, Italy and the Netherlands said they were speeding up negotiations with pharmaceutical companies to secure access to vaccines currently under development. (6/4)
The New York Times:
Tests For Coronavirus Vaccine Need This Ingredient: Horseshoe Crabs
For decades, drug companies have depended on a component in the blood of the horseshoe crab to test injectable medicines, including vaccines, for dangerous bacterial contaminants called endotoxins. Conservationists and some businesses have pushed for wide acceptance of an alternative test, to protect the horseshoe crabs and birds that feed on their eggs. Earlier this year, these people seemed to be on the brink of success as the nongovernmental group that issues quality standards for such tests moved toward putting the alternative test on the same footing. (Gorman, 6/3)
Reuters:
Vaccine Group Plans Advance Market Agreement For COVID-19 Vaccines
The GAVI vaccines alliance is to launch an Advance Market Commitment (AMC) for future COVID-19 vaccines which it says will help secure access to the new shots for poorer countries. (Kelland, 6/3)
