Can Operation Warp Speed Serve as a Model for Accelerating Innovations Beyond COVID Vaccines?

Arielle D'Souza, Kendall Hoyt, Christopher Snyder and Alec Stapp

No 32831, NBER Working Papers from National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc

Abstract: Operation Warp Speed (OWS) was a U.S. government-led program to accelerate the development, production, and administration of COVID-19 vaccines. The program cut the typical ten-year timeline needed to develop a new vaccine down to ten months and began vaccinating vulnerable populations within a year after launch. OWS’s success has led to calls for a similar mission model to accelerate innovations addressing other pressing social needs, including a cure for Alzheimer’s disease or atmospheric-carbon removal to combat global warming. We provide a framework to understand which innovations call for a mission approach and apply economic principles to identify key design features that contributed to the success of OWS.

JEL-codes: D47 I18 L65 O31 O32 O35 O38 Q54 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2024-08
Note: EH POL PR
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Published as Can Operation Warp Speed Serve as a Model for Accelerating Innovations beyond COVID Vaccines? , Arielle D'Souza, Kendall Hoyt, Christopher M. Snyder, Alec Stapp. in Entrepreneurship and Innovation Policy and the Economy, volume 4 , Jones and Lerner. 2025

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