In a visit to Morrisville, North Carolina yesterday, to the Fujifilm Diosynth Biotechnologies Innovation Center, President Donald Trump delivered upbeat remarks about advances in vaccine development and trials, and the potential for use of therapeutics in treating COVID-19. He announced that Moderna is entering phase 3 trials of its vaccine, that a second vaccine will also be doing phase 3 trials later this week, and then four additional vaccine candidates will do the same in “coming weeks,” including the Novavax vaccine being developed at the Fujifilm Diosynth Biotechnologies’ Innovation Center he was visiting.
Trump announced that Novavax had received a $1.6 billion grant from the administration under Operation Warp Speed, and that the Department of Health and Human Services had just signed a $265 million contract with Fujifilm Texas A&M Innovation Center to speed up its vaccine manufacturing capability. He explained that rather than going through the usual sequence of vaccine development, testing and trials followed by production, his administration is doing all phases simultaneously.
