Moderna was federally funded in part. Operation Warp Speed is going well since it began last April.
Freezers around the country are being filled with vaccine.
Flights from Belgium are arriving as planned.
looks to me like things are going well now.
I agree with you for the most part. It is not overrated, however.
Operation Warp Speed didn’t put a cent into early development.
I have been involved in phase 2 to 4... from calibrating kit in labs to attending FDA approval meetings, I know first hand how it works. I’ve even had to check under my car for devices put there by animal rights nutters.
Phases 2 onward in Europe are performed by clinical research orgs, not by the drug companies themselves (it’s like how banks have to be externally audited; drug companies can’t mark their own homework).
Later phase trials are usually performed with volunteers, in the UK that may be NHS but is often done in private hospitals / clinics, university hospitals, and may be monitored by general practitioners (which are private enterprises with funding from the NHS).
By the time Federal funding hit the drug development they’d pretty much done all the preliminary research.
That’s what I was getting at. Germany, the UK and even Russia put money into the really risky end. Trump was too busy dismissing the China Virus as a hoax. That is why the USA has no domestic drug and why it’ll end up importing vaccines. That includes the one that has to be deep frozen and can’t be allowed to warm up until it’s about to be administered...
The Oxford drug might be a good bet as it doesn’t have the logistical challenges. Time to get that USA-UK deal done!
https://www.nccn.org/patients/resources/clinical_trials/phases.aspx