BioCentury
ARTICLE | Product Development

With AZ deal, Operation Warp Speed takes first step to train guns on coronavirus

Initiative unveils first investment: up to $1.2B in a COVID-19 vaccine AstraZeneca has licensed from Oxford

May 21, 2020 2:58 PM UTC

Operation Warp Speed, along with its promises and dangers, is coming into sharp focus. Its investment of up to $1.2 billion in a COVID-19 vaccine candidate is testimony to the risks it is prepared to take. Its biggest weapon is the U.S. military expertise that it is bringing to the fight.

In a deal announced May 21, Operation Warp Speed -- the Trump administration’s program to accelerate COVID-19 countermeasures -- gains access to the vaccine AZD1222 (formerly ChAdOx1 nCoV-19) that AstraZeneca plc (LSE:AZN; NYSE:AZN) licensed from the University of Oxford...