U.S. to share government-backed COVID-19 tech with WHO - Washington Post
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The Biden administration is planning to share U.S. government-devised COVID-19 technologies with the World Health Organization (WHO), The Washington Post reported Thursday, citing people familiar with the matter.
The policy will see the U.S. licensing certain technologies being developed by the National Institutes of Health (NIH) to WHOâs COVID-19 Technology Access Pool with sub-licensing to the United Nations-backed Medicines Patent Pool.
However, the plan to be announced Thursday morning by Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra, will exclude the technologies used in currently available vaccines and treatments developed by private companies, according to the people.
Specifically, the government is not expected to share the technology behind the COVID-19 vaccine designed by Moderna (NASDAQ:MRNA) in partnership with the U.S. National Institutes of Health (NIH).
In addition to Moderna (MRNA
-4.4%), Novavax (NVAX
-5.6%) also received government backing for the development of its COVID-19 vaccine. Other drugmakers with U.S.-authorized COVID-19 vaccines are Pfizer (PFE
+0.9%)/BioNTech (BNTX
-4.5%) and Johnson & Johnson (JNJ
+1.0%).
Last December, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) authorized COVID-19 pills developed by Pfizer (PFE
+0.9%) and Merck (MRK
+0.2%)// Ridgeback Biotherapeutics, adding to intravenously delivered COVID-19 therapeutics developed by Eli Lilly (LLY
+0.6%), Regeneron (REGN
-1.0%), Gilead (GILD
+0.6%), GlaxoSmithKline (GSK
-1.6%)/ Vir Biotechnology (VIR
-0.7%) and AstraZeneca (AZN
-4.0%).
On Thursday, the WHO recommended the COVID-19 pill developed by Merck (NYSE:MRK) and Ridgeback making it the first oral antiviral drug for COVID-19 included in the treatment guidelines of the global body.