Sanofi Pasteur was given $77.4 million, while MedImmune’s contract was approximately $55.1 million.
According to Reuters, the government is keen to get vaccine factories up and running in the US as most vaccines for the US market come from abroad. If an influenza pandemic were to happen, countries may nationalize their own vaccine supplies.
“The contract covers costs for design, retrofit and the maintenance of the facilities at a state of readiness so the company can switch to pandemic influenza vaccine manufacture at the HHS’ request,” Sanofi said in a statement.
Sanofi’s existing facility has been modified over the years to produce approximately 50 million doses of vaccine for the US market during the course of the past several influenza seasons. When both facilities are validated, the company’s capacity will approximately triple from its current capacity.
The department of health and human services (HHS) estimates that upon completion, the new facilities will expand domestic pandemic vaccine manufacturing capacity by 16%.