Moderna

The U.S. helped pioneer the technology, but new funding cuts may shift breakthroughs — and industry leadership — overseas.

Under the Trump administration, the government has rescinded research funding, changed vaccine recommendations, and refused to review Moderna’s new mRNA flu vaccine. That could set vaccine research and development back for years.

But the pharma company promised that individuals won’t pay the full amount.

The U.K. is targeting the BA.1 subvariant of omicron while the U.S. is targeting the more recent BA.4 and BA.5 omicron strains.

The company is under scrutiny over vaccine equity. It received considerable U.S. government help in developing its vaccine.

The resulting goodwill may prove useful to Pfizer and Moderna.

Within 24 hours of emergency authorization from the Food and Drug Administration, the vaccine maker Pfizer plans to move the product to patients nationwide.

Moderna is just behind Pfizer and its German partner BioNTech in seeking to begin vaccinations in the U.S. in December.

The COVID-19 vaccine is being produced so quickly due to a combination of factors involving the research community, government, industry and the public.

At first, COVID-19 vaccines won’t be marketed in the usual sense, because the government will be the main buyer.