Similarly to Pfizer, Moderna contracted with the DOD for a "manufacturing demonstration". In parallel, they contracted with HHS/BARDA for "vaccine" R&D. This is different from Pfizer's contracts where R&D and clinical trial activities where explicitly out of scope. Also differently from Pfizer and other covid contracts, Moderna's contracts did not utilize Other Transaction Authority (OTA) contracting method. This does not seem to change the product liability, as Moderna's poison is co-owned/co-developed with the US Government and is covered by the PREP Act like all other "covid countermeasures".

There are two separate Investigational New Drug numbers for mRNA-1273: one held by Moderna, the other – by DMID (NIH), representing a co-ownership and a serious conflict of interest.

As a brief background, Moderna was founded in 2011, financially and scientifically failed by 2016, and then was "rescued" from the trash heap by the conspicuously generous funding from the US Government. The government-military funding had been pouring into Moderna even before 2016. In October 2013, DARPA awarded Moderna nearly $25 million to research and develop potential mRNA compounds under DARPA's Autonomous Diagnostics to Enable Prevention and Therapeutics (ADEPT) program: Developing technologies to rapidly detect and respond to threats from natural and man-made diseases and toxins. Back in March 2013, Moderna received funding from DARPA - and the second round of funds was to be used, according to press release, primarily to support vaccine and antibody development to protect against chikungunya infections. Moderna also received $955 million from BARDA - Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority to develop a Covid-19 vaccine based on mRNA technology in collaboration with the NIH.