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Chief medical officer Dr. “The idea of having a business plan with two companies rather than one public health plan bothers us,” said Joia Mukherjee. Partners in Health, a global public health nonprofit. We believe Biden has the power to demand the sharing of patents and know-how, especially at Moderna, as most are funded by taxpayers.”
Angry at what they saw as the slow progress of the administration, some activists came to the home of Mr. Biden’s chief of staff, Ron Klain, in September and September. lay a false mountain of bones on the sidewalk to protest. Another group protested outside Mr. Zients’ home on Wednesday morning.
Addressing the criticism that the Biden plan does not focus on overseas capacity building, Dr. Kessler said domestic production is “important not only for US supply but also for global supply.”
At the same time, partnerships with major pharmaceutical manufacturers offer no guarantees. Mr. Biden, earlier this year, brokered an agreement pharmaceutical giant Merck & Co. to manufacture the Johnson & Johnson vaccine, including to other countries. Officials believe that the partnership’s president, Franklin D. Roosevelt, was born in World War II.
However, the Merck deal did not work out as expected. Administration officials said they initially hoped Merck would start producing the vaccine’s key ingredient by the end of this year, but that wouldn’t happen until April.
Congress this year put a total of $16.05 billion in the American Recovery Plan in two separate tranches that could be used to procure and manufacture treatments, vaccines and other tools to end the pandemic.
But in an analysis published this summer, AIDS advocacy group Prep4All found that the administration spent $145 million—of which just $12 million from the American Recovery Plan—to expand vaccine production. Most went to retrofit Merck’s production lines.
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