AstraZeneca-Oxford trial COVID vaccine moves to crucial phase with $1 billion in U.S. backing

London — In the race for a vaccine against the deadly coronavirus, U.S. taxpayers have placed a $1 billion bet on Oxford University. The investment announced this week by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services comes just as Oxford's vaccine team enters a crucial phase in its human trials: expanding testing with the enrollment of more than 10,000 people, including children age 5 to 12, and people over 70.

"The main reason why that is important is that the immune responses [in the older group] tend to be less strong, particularly in the over 70's, so we want to study that in great detail in that age group," explained Oxford team leader Professor Andrew Pollard, who added that the study was also intended to show "any differences in vaccine safety in that group."

U.K.-based pharmaceutical giant AstraZeneca, which has partnered with Oxford's Jenner Institute for vaccine research, has gained access to the $1.2 billion cash injection from the U.S. government to produce at least 300 million doses of their still-unapproved vaccine as soon as this fall.

"What we know is that we have a vaccine that has a good chance to work. It uses a technology that has been validated before with other vaccines, so we know a lot about it," he said. "Of course it may fail, but there is a good chance it will work, and essentially the [Trump] administration is saying, 'we're going to make a bet.' The only way to get a vaccine ready for patients in September and October is to start manufacturing it now."

Soriot said his company was preparing to produce 1 billion doses of the vaccine by the end of 2021.

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Trust the plan, you're gonna get your MAGA vaccine