U.S. plans to move COVID vaccines, treatments to private markets in 2023

WASHINGTON, Aug 30 (Reuters) – The U.S. authorities expects its provide of COVID-19 vaccines and antiviral therapies to expire over the subsequent yr and is making ready for them to be offered through the industrial market, the Division of Well being and Human Providers stated on Tuesday.

President Joe Biden’s administration expects to expire of federal funding for purchasing and distributing COVID-19 vaccines by January, though it has already purchased over 170 million doses for a booster marketing campaign later this yr, in response to a weblog publish written by Assistant Secretary for Preparedness and Response Daybreak O’Connell.

The administration has procured sufficient of Pfizer’s (PFE.N) antiviral therapy Paxlovid to provide the tablets till mid-2023, O’Connell stated, however different therapeutics made by Merck & Co (MRK.N) and AstraZeneca (AZN.L) are prone to be offered on the industrial market sooner.

“Our objective is to transition procurement and distribution of COVID-19 vaccines and therapeutics from a federally managed system to the industrial market in a considerate, well-coordinated method that leaves nobody behind,” she wrote following a gathering with non-public sector representatives.

Based mostly on present projections, O’Connell stated, the provision of AstraZeneca’s preventative therapy Evusheld will run out in early 2023, adopted by Merck’s antiviral capsule Lagevrio (molnupiravir) within the first or second quarter.

The shortage of extra Congressional funding means provides will run out sooner than anticipated, O’Connell stated.

“We now have all the time meant to transition this work to the industrial market and have been planning for that transition for a while now,” she stated. “Sadly, the timeline to make the transition has accelerated over the previous six months with out extra funds from Congress to help this work,” she stated.

Funding remains to be wanted for growing new vaccines, therapies and checks, in addition to to handle the transition, she added.

The federal government additionally cited a scarcity of funding on Monday, when it stated Individuals would not be capable to order free at-home COVID checks from its COVIDTests.gov web site beginning subsequent week. learn extra

Reporting by Ahmed Aboulenein in Washington; Modifying by Michael Erman and Invoice Berkrot

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