A report from the Government Accountability Office (GAO) indicates that in 2012, Health and Human Services (HHS) established a program to ensure the U.S. could rapidly produce medical countermeasures—such as drugs and vaccines—in public health emergencies. The program didn't meet its goals in responding to the COVID-19 pandemic, HHS found, and had trouble with large-scale production and quality control. HHS is transitioning to a new program, but needs to take additional steps to ensure that the new program doesn't repeat the previous program's challenges.
The report can be obtained at https://www.gao.gov/assets/gao-23-105713.pdf.