White House reallocating $10B away from COVID testing, PPE to ensure vaccine preparedness
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The White House said it is being forced to take $10B away in spending that would have been used for COVID-19 tests, personal protective equipment, and R&D to ensure it can procure new vaccines in the fall.
The Biden administration is redirecting $5B to purchase updated versions of vaccine in the fall that can fight the Omicron variant and others of concern. Another $4.9B will go to purchase 10M courses of Pfizer's (NYSE:PFE) antiviral Paxlovid and $330M for monoclonal antibody treatments.
A White House official in May expressed concern that the U.S. could see a COVID wave beginning in the fall.
The White House has requested $22.5B in COVID funding from Congress. A White House official told CNN that without additional congressional funding, the federal government might not be able to procure enough vaccines for every American who would want one.
Major vaccine makers: Moderna (NASDAQ:MRNA), BioNTech (NASDAQ:BNTX), Novavax (NASDAQ:NVAX).
Pfizer (PFE) recently said it is spending $120M to increase production capacity of Paxlovid.