As the United States accelerates the search for a coronavirus vaccine, tensions have erupted between government scientists and Moderna Inc., one of the leading developers, it has been learned.
The federal government is supporting Moderna’s vaccine project with nearly half a billion dollars and has chosen it as one of the first to enter large-scale human trials.
But the company — which has never produced an approved vaccine or run a large trial — has squabbled with government scientists over the process, delayed delivering trial protocols and resisted experts’ advice on how to run the study, according to three sources familiar with the vaccine project. The sources said those tensions, which have not been previously reported, have contributed to a delay of more than two weeks in launching the trial of Moderna’s vaccine candidate, now expected in late July.