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Does the National Institutes of Health have a financial stake in the creation of a COVID-19 vaccine?

Wednesday, August 5, 2020
By Allegra Taylor
YES

In a May interview, National Institutes of Health Director Francis Collins said that the agency has a stake in the intellectual property behind the coronavirus vaccine currently being developed by Moderna Inc.

A December 2019 contract obtained by Axios states that vaccine research material is jointly owned by Moderna and the infectious disease arm of NIH. The contract did not specify the novel coronavirus (which was only just emerging), but names viruses in the same family. More specific terms haven't been disclosed.

Partial federal ownership of a potential coronavirus vaccine has led to hopes that, if proven, the vaccine will be made widely, affordably available for public use. The Moderna vaccine began phase three of clinical trials in late July.

This fact brief is responsive to conversations such as this one.
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