[refurb]

” Company representatives said in November that "the company is part of Operation Warp Speed as a supplier of a potential coronavirus vaccine,"[60] and that "Pfizer is proud to be one of various vaccine manufacturers participating in Operation Warp Speed as a supplier of a potential COVID-19 vaccine."”

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Warp_Speed

[bryanlarsen]

Pfizer sold vaccines to the US government. That money came from Warp Speed. That's basically the full extent of Pfizer's involvement in Warp Speed. I choose to call that non-participation, but it's a subtle argument.

https://www.politifact.com/article/2020/nov/19/pfizer-modern...

The U.S. government did not fund the companies’ research and development.

Pfizer chose to risk its own money on vaccine research and not take federal funding in order to avoid bureaucracy and politics, Pfizer’s CEO Albert Bourla said. He said its investment so far was at least $1.5 billion.

"I wanted to liberate our scientists from any bureaucracy," Bourla told CBS in September. "When you get money from someone that always comes with strings. They want to see how you are going to progress, what type of moves you are going to do. They want reports. I didn't want to have any of that.

"Basically I gave them an open checkbook so that they can worry only about scientific challenges, not anything else," he said. "And also, I wanted to keep Pfizer out of politics, by the way."

[refurb]

But Warp Speed was more than just R&D dollars. In fact, the R&D dollars were the minor part.

A big part was the coordination between multiple government agencies, negotiation with suppliers for guaranteed volumes, throwing money at the problem when needed.

Pfizer doesn’t need money. It makes billions in profit each year. But it does need the FDA, DOD, CDC, etc all aligned and a clearly laid out path from development, to approval, to distribution and eventually administration.

The R&D is just a small part of it.