In late February, as the coronavirus spread around the world, Dr. Richard Hatchett, the head of an international nonprofit that gives money to vaccine developers, got on an important call to discuss vaccine candidates after his plane touched down at London’s Heathrow Airport.
Executives from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, which helped found and finance the nonprofit, were on the line, enthusiastic about Novavax, a small biotech company they thought had the potential to develop a vaccine against the virus — fast.