{"id":3171,"date":"2023-04-11T09:46:03","date_gmt":"2023-04-11T14:46:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/healthsecurity\/transmission\/?p=3171"},"modified":"2023-04-11T09:46:07","modified_gmt":"2023-04-11T14:46:07","slug":"white-house-launching-5-billion-program-to-speed-coronavirus-vaccines","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/healthsecurity\/transmission\/2023\/04\/11\/white-house-launching-5-billion-program-to-speed-coronavirus-vaccines\/","title":{"rendered":"White House launching $5 billion program to speed coronavirus vaccines"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Washington Post<\/a> \u2018Project Next Gen\u2019 would succeed \u2018Operation Warp Speed\u2019 with a mission to develop next-generation vaccines and therapies. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Biden administration is launching a $5 billion-plus program to accelerate development of new coronavirus<\/a> vaccines and treatments, seeking to better protect against a still-mutating virus, as well as other coronaviruses that might threaten us in the future.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cProject Next Gen\u201d \u2014 the long-anticipated follow-up to \u201cOperation Warp Speed,\u201d the Trump-era program that sped coronavirus vaccines to patients in 2020 \u2014 would take a similar approach to partnering with private-sector companies to expedite development of vaccines and therapies. Scientists, public heath experts and politicians have called for the initiative, warning that existing therapies have steadily lost their effectiveness and that new ones are needed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt\u2019s been very clear to us that the market on this is moving very slowly,\u201d Ashish Jha, the White House coronavirus coordinator, said Monday. \u201cThere\u2019s a lot that government can do, the administration can do, to speed up those tools \u2026 for the American people.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Jha and others said the new effort will focus on three goals: creating long-lasting monoclonal antibodies<\/a>, after an evolving virus rendered many current treatments ineffective; accelerating development ofvaccines that produce mucosal immunity, which is thought to reduce transmission and infection risks; and speeding efforts to developpan-coronavirus vaccines<\/a> to guardagainst new SARS-CoV-2 variants, as well as other coronaviruses.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Officials note that several coronavirus-driven outbreaks in the past two decades, including severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus in 2002 and Middle East respiratory syndrome in 2012, have spurred worries about the potential for future health crises related to the viruses. That said, a universal coronavirus vaccine could take years to develop; researchers have sought unsuccessfully for decades to create such a vaccine against influenza.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Some of the lab work is underway, and the government has begun efforts to find potential private-sector partners, said Dawn O\u2019Connell, assistant secretary for preparedness and response at the Department of Health and Human Services. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Some of the lab work is underway, and the government has begun efforts to find potential private-sector partners, said Dawn O\u2019Connell, assistant secretary for preparedness and response at the Department of Health and Human Services. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The White House also held several events to promote the need for new therapies and engage scientists around those goals.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe need vaccines that are more durable. Vaccines that offer broader and longer-lasting protection. Vaccines that can stand up to multiple variants. Vaccines that can handle whatever Mother Nature throws at us,\u201d Jha said at a July 2022 White House coronavirus vaccine summit.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Biden administration\u2019s vaccine accelerator was originally dubbed \u201cProject Covid Shield<\/a>,\u201d and some GOP lawmakers had suggested launching an \u201cOperation Warp Speed 2.0\u201d to build on the Trump administration\u2019s effort and signal a bipartisan approach.But White House officials wanted some distance from the Trump effort as well as from covid-focused branding, when much of the country had moved on from the pandemic, said two people who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss internal conversations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Jha said \u201cProject Next Gen\u201d made sense as branding for a program focused on next-generation vaccines and treatments. \u201cIt\u2019s a different time. We have a different set of goals. The name we have much more accurately captures what it is that we are trying to do,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Jha also said that investing in next-generation coronavirus vaccines could have beneficial effects across the health system. \u201cOur ability to develop \u2026 vaccines that generate mucosal immunity will have very large benefits for other respiratory pathogens we deal with all the time, like flu and RSV,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Experts have said that government commitments are critical to accelerating the pace of next-generation therapies.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe need to move quickly to start testing these nasal vaccines in humans, and that requires significant U.S. government input \u2014 both resources and help with manufacturing and delivery as well as acceptance across society,\u201d Yale University immunologist Akiko Iwasaki said at last year\u2019s White House vaccine summit. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Eric Topol, director of the Scripps Research Translational Institute, said he had talked to Jha repeatedlyabout the importance<\/a> of moving forward on nasal vaccines and also a pan-coronavirus vaccine.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt doesn\u2019t take much to get the nasal vaccine across the goal line \u2014 that should be the first priority,\u201d Topol said. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

More than 1.1 million Americans have died of covid-19 since the pandemic began, including more than 250,000 in 2022, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. While the number of serious cases and deaths have receded, at least 35,000 Americans have died this year, and some projections suggest that the coronavirus could surge again this fall and winter.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Current and former Biden administration officials, including Anthony Fauci, had spent months pressing Congress for billions of dollars that could be used to develop next-generation vaccines and treatments \u2014 arguments that largely fell flat, with GOP leaders asking for a thorough accounting of the billions of dollars already allocated to the broader covid response. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThis was designed to pressure Republicans to open a checkbook, sign the check and let the administration fill in the balance,\u201d Richard Burr, who was the top Republican on the Senate\u2019s health panel, said at a June 2022 hearing with Biden health officials.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In recent months, Biden officials have argued to GOP lawmakers that both peer and rival countries, such as Japan and China, are moving ahead with similar projects.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Key parts of the new initiative are not yet finalized. The White House is still considering candidates to lead the program, officials said. The vetting process has been complicated by Democrats\u2019 desire to avoid questions of conflicts of interest that dogged Operation Warp Speed, after Trump officials selected Moncef Slaoui, a pharmaceutical industry executive with significant stock holdings, to lead that program. That decision had prompted\u00a0criticism<\/a>\u00a0from Democrats although health officials praised Slaoui\u2019s knowledge of the industry and credited his successful bets on vaccine candidates from Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Project Next Gen also faces key differences from its predecessor, including itssmaller size and more open-endedmission. The Trump-era project, focused on an urgent need with a defined virus, drew on funds that officials viewed as a blank check<\/a> and was budgeted at $18 billion<\/a> in 2020. While the new initiative is more modest, administration officials said they might secure additional money, even as they focus on blunting variants and viruses that have yet to emerge.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Even some of the Republicans who blocked the White House\u2019s coronavirus funding requests last year said they wanted a \u201cWarp Speed 2.0\u201d to rush updated vaccines and treatments that would better fight the virus.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cOperation Warp Speed was the most successful public health program since small pox. It saved millions of lives, and it should be resurrected as soon as possible,\u201d Burr and then-Sen. James M. Inhofe (R-Okla.) wrote<\/a> to Biden in August 2022.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

O\u2019Connell said the Biden administration had drawn lessons from Operation Warp Speed, such as how to expedite vaccine development, that would be applied to Project Next Gen.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve learned a lot in these three years,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Washington Post \u2018Project Next Gen\u2019 would succeed \u2018Operation Warp Speed\u2019 with a mission to develop next-generation vaccines and therapies. The Biden administration is launching a $5 billion-plus program to accelerate development of new coronavirus vaccines and treatments, seeking to better protect against a still-mutating virus, as well as other coronaviruses that might threaten us in the future. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":11,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"#BIGDEAL \ud83d\udc49 Next generation #covid #vaccines program launched to accelerate development @EricTopol @ddiamond @WashingtonPost","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3171","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-vaccine-headlines"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/healthsecurity\/transmission\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3171","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/healthsecurity\/transmission\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/healthsecurity\/transmission\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/healthsecurity\/transmission\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/11"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/healthsecurity\/transmission\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3171"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/healthsecurity\/transmission\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3171\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3172,"href":"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/healthsecurity\/transmission\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3171\/revisions\/3172"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/healthsecurity\/transmission\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3171"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/healthsecurity\/transmission\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3171"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/healthsecurity\/transmission\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3171"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}