At the beginning of the week, the US government funded Sanofi and GSK with $2.1 billion to develop and deliver doses of the potential COVID-19 vaccine. Yesterday, it made another deal, but this time with Johnson & Johnson.
The American corporation announced that it secured a $1 billion deal by which it must develop and supply 100 million doses of its Coronavirus vaccine. According to the agreement, the US has the option to order 200 million additional doses.
It is the company's second governmental funding. Earlier this year, Johnson & Johnson received $456 million to develop the vaccine.
According to the US Department of Health and Human Services, the Americans will receive the doses cost-free if those doses are part of a COVID-19 vaccination campaign. But the health-care professionals could ask for money when administering the vaccine to people.
The vaccine developed by Johnson & Johnson is currently in the early stage of human trials, and the late-stage trials are set to start in September.
After the news, the company's stock price gained 0.80%. During today's pre-market session, it went up 0.16%.
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Sources: marketwatch.com, reuters.com