NIH and Massachusetts-based Moderna, who have worked together for several years to research coronaviruses, signed a contract in December before the CCP virus had been sequenced. These federal documents stated that “mRNA [Moderna] coronavirus vaccine candidates [are] developed and jointly owned” by the medical research center and Moderna.
If true, the federal government could try to facilitate wide distribution of the vaccine at low cost, or no cost at all, guaranteed that the product is both safe and effective.
Zain Rizvi, a health law and policy researcher at Public Citizen, told the news outlet that this makes it evident that “the government and the public have a stake” in the CCP virus vaccine.
“The vaccine would not exist without the intellectual contributions of federal scientists,” he added.
“Recognizing the importance of these novel immunogens, NIAID has sought patents to preserve the government’s rights to these inventions and to provide incentive for commercial partners to invest the capital and resources needed to advance their development, commercialization, and public use as vaccines,” the statement reads.
The Epoch Times has reached out to Moderna for comment.
The American biotech company said Thursday that it was partnering with contract drugmaker Catalent to prepare an initial 100 million doses of its COVID-19 vaccine for the United States, starting in the third quarter of this year.
Catalent will fill and package doses, support production, and provide additional staffing for around-the-clock operations to produce the vaccine, which is still in clinical trials.
The vaccine, among the first to be tested in humans in the United States, was found to produce protective antibodies in a small group of healthy volunteers last month. Antibodies are a blood protein produced by the immune system to combat viruses and other foreign material.
Moderna is preparing to begin the final stages of testing in July to evaluate the vaccine’s effectiveness in preventing the respiratory illness in around 30,000 adult trial participants.