Can Operation Warp Speed Serve as a Model for Accelerating Innovations beyond COVID Vaccines?

Operation Warp Speed (OWS) was a US government-led program to accelerate the development, production, and administration of COVID-19 vaccines. The program cut the typical 10-year timeline needed to develop a new vaccine down to 10 months and began vaccinating vulnerable populations within a year after launch. OWS’s success has led to calls for a similar mission model to accelerate innovations addressing other pressing social needs, including a cure for Alzheimer’s disease or atmospheric carbon removal to combat global warming. We provide a framework to understand which innovations call for a mission approach and apply economic principles to identify key design features that contributed to the success of OWS.