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# Covid-19 to Spur Wide Vaccines Growth: Alliance
- URL: https://www.fdaweb.com/covid-19-to-spur-wide-vaccines-growth-alliance/
- Published: 2020-05-01T12:00:00.000Z
- Updated: 2026-09-14T16:13:24.000Z
- Author: David McFarland
- Tags: FDA Policy/General, #legacy-id-D5146704

After years of stagnation, the vaccines development industry is likely to see a renaissance under pressure from the Covid-19 pandemic, predicts Alliance for a Stronger FDA. In a 5/1 [commentary](https://strengthenfda.org/2020/05/01/no-need-for-a-crystal-ball-in-some-scenarios/?ref=fdaweb.com), Alliance deputy executive director **Steven Grossman** writes that the pandemic will lead to a resurgence in the moribund product area.

“Billions of dollars are being spent on developing a Covid-19 vaccine," he points out. "New data and new insights from that effort will speed up the identification, development, and manufacture of vaccines for other diseases. FDA will need more staff to handle this.” Without proper funding and resources, FDA’s vaccine programs could wind up like the cell and gene therapy programs — “behind the curve and needing massive infusions of resources to catch up,” Grossman says.  

Past budget efforts failed to provide adequate resources to address the rapid growth of cell and gene therapy products, Grossman writes*. "*CBER has 900 active IND’s and is accruing more than 200 new cell and gene therapy IND’s each year. Prior planning anticipated a much lower number of IND’s and a much slower growth in the resources needed. In its advocacy, the Alliance has stressed that this needs to be addressed in FDA’s FY21 appropriation.”

Another area not to lose sight on is science and technology, which are “advancing so rapidly that the FDA’s workload is certain to significantly increase in 2021\. Failure to anticipate the acceleration of science and technology and provide additional funding to FDA will result in delayed milestones and missed opportunities to improve the public health in the United States,” Grossman says. With science growing more complex, the implications to FDA resources cannot be ignored, he concludes. “Simply, we need to plan ahead for where science and technology will take FDA. If not, we risk roadblocks in the path of progress.”