Report: Trump Administration Picks 5 Coronavirus Vaccine Candidates to Support - Motley Fool

The Trump administration has picked five COVID-19 vaccine candidates that it views as the most likely to be successful, according to an article published Wednesday by The New York Times.

The newspaper stated that four of the companies whose candidates made the list are U.S.-based: Moderna (NASDAQ:MRNA), Johnson & Johnson (NYSE:JNJ), Merck (NYSE:MRK), and Pfizer (NYSE:PFE).

Moderna, Johnson & Johnson, and the AstraZeneca-Oxford partnership have already received a combined $2.2 billion in federal funding.

The vaccines being developed by Moderna and the AstraZeneca-Oxford team are currently being evaluated in phase 2 clinical studies.

Johnson & Johnson and Merck haven't initiated clinical studies of their vaccine candidates yet.