About the Authors

Richard Mahoney

Roles Conceptualization, Formal analysis, Visualization, Writing – original draft, Writing – review & editing

Richard.Mahoney@bcm.edu

Affiliation Texas Children’s Hospital Center for Vaccine Development, Department of Pediatrics, Division of Tropical Medicine, Baylor College of Medicine, Houston, Texas, United States of America

Peter J. Hotez

Roles Conceptualization, Formal analysis, Visualization, Writing – review & editing

Affiliations Texas Children’s Hospital Center for Vaccine Development, Department of Pediatrics, Division of Tropical Medicine, Baylor College of Medicine, Houston, Texas, United States of America, Department of Molecular Virology and Microbiology, Baylor College of Medicine, Houston, Texas, United States of America, Department of Biology, Baylor University, Waco, Texas, United States of America, James A. Baker III Institute for Public Policy, Rice University, Houston, Texas, United States of America, Hagler Institute for Advanced Study at Texas A&M University, College Station, Texas, United States of America

Maria Elena Bottazzi

Roles Conceptualization, Formal analysis, Visualization, Writing – review & editing

Affiliations Texas Children’s Hospital Center for Vaccine Development, Department of Pediatrics, Division of Tropical Medicine, Baylor College of Medicine, Houston, Texas, United States of America, Department of Molecular Virology and Microbiology, Baylor College of Medicine, Houston, Texas, United States of America, Department of Biology, Baylor University, Waco, Texas, United States of America

Competing Interests

I have read the journal’s policy and the authors of this manuscript have the following competing interests: PJH and MEB are co-inventors of the COVID-19 recombinant protein vaccine technology owned by Baylor College of Medicine (BCM) that was licensed by BCM non-exclusively and with no patent restrictions to India- and Indonesia-based manufacturers. The co-inventors are not involved in license negotiations conducted by BCM. Similar to other research universities, a long-standing BCM policy provides its faculty and staff, who make discoveries that result in a commercial license, a share of any royalty income. RM, PJH and MEB have no other relevant affiliations or financial involvement with any organization or entity with a financial interest in or financial conflict with the subject matter or material discussed in the manuscript.