HHS awards over $1.4 billion to develop COVID-19 vaccines

The Department of Health and Human Services awarded more than $1.4 billion this week to support the development of the next generation of tools and technologies to protect against COVID-19. The funding includes $1 billion for vaccine clinical trials, $326 million for a monoclonal antibody trials and $100 million to explore vaccine and therapeutic technologies. The Administration for Strategic Preparedness and Response leads the $5 billion Project NextGen initiative, which coordinates across the government and private sectors to advance innovative vaccines and therapeutics into clinical trials, regulatory review and potential commercial availability. (HHS news release, 8/22/23)