The planned launch comes after Biden health officials had funding requests for the program repeatedly rebuffed by Congress, with Republicans insisting the administration had funds left over from prior covid aid packages. A pot of money was finally created after the White House directed HHS to free up $5 billion for the initiative. The agency shifted funds intended for coronavirus testing, personal protective equipment and other priorities, potentially teeing up new questions from Republicans about why those funds were available.

The White House also held several events to promote the need for new therapies and engage scientists around those goals.

“We need vaccines that are more durable. Vaccines that offer broader, and longer-lasting protection. Vaccines that can stand up to multiple variants. Vaccines that can handle whatever Mother Nature throws at us,” Jha said at a July 2022 White House covid vaccine summit.

The Biden administration’s vaccine accelerator was originally dubbed “Project Covid Shield,” and some GOP lawmakers had suggested launching an “Operation Warp Speed 2.0” to build on the Trump administration’s effort and signal a bipartisan approach. But White House officials wanted some distance from the Trump effort as well as from covid-focused branding, when much of the country had moved on from the pandemic, said two people who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss internal conversations.

Jha said “Project Next Gen” made sense as branding for a program focused on next-generation vaccines and treatments. “It’s a different time. We have a different set of goals. The name we have much more accurately captures what it is that we are trying to do,” he said.

Jha also said that investing in next-generation coronavirus vaccines could have beneficial effects across the health system. “Our ability to develop … vaccines that generate mucosal immunity will have very large benefits for other respiratory pathogens we deal with all the time, like flu and RSV,” he said.

Experts have said that government commitments are critical to accelerating the pace of next-generation therapies.

“We need to move quickly to start testing these nasal vaccines in humans and that requires significant U.S. government input — both resources and help with manufacturing and delivery as well as acceptance across society,” Yale University immunologist Akiko Iwasaki said at last year’s White House vaccine summit.

Eric Topol, director of the Scripps Research Translational Institute, said he had talked to Jha repeatedly about the importance of moving forward on nasal vaccines and also a pan-coronavirus vaccine.

“It doesn’t take much to get the nasal vaccine across the goal line — that should be the first priority,” Topol said

They moved on to the third part ....