Logo for InfluenceWatch InfluenceWatch

Donate
For-profit

Vaccine Company Inc.

Type:

Pharmaceutical Company
Formation:

2022
CEO:

Susan Silbermann

Contact InfluenceWatch with suggested edits or tips for additional profiles.

Vaccine Company Inc. is a for-profit biotechnology company that develops vaccines. In September 2024, the Vaccine Company received $28 million in federal funding. The following year, U.S. Senator Joni Ernst (R-IA) asked the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) to investigate the company given its lack of public presence and its connection to the Biden administration through two key personnel. 1

Government Funding

In September 2024, during the final months of the Biden administration, the federal government awarded the Vaccine Company over $28 million for “Project A-FAVE: Applied biotechnology for broad Flavivirus Antigen discovery and Vaccine candidate Evaluation.” Well-known flaviviruses include West Nile, dengue, and Zika. The award was given through the Advanced Research Projects Agency for Health (ARPA-H) research program of the National Institutes of Health, an agency within the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS). This was the first instance of the Vaccine Company receiving federal funds. 1 2 3

In March 2025, U.S. Senator Joni Ernst (R-IA) wrote a letter to Secretary of Health and Human Services Robert Kennedy Jr. asking him to investigate the Vaccine Company after Senator Ernst was unable to find any evidence of the Vaccine Company’s use of federal funds. She noted that the Company has almost no online footprint and lists different locations (California, Maryland, and Massachusetts) in different business filings. 1 2 3

Senator Ernst also drew attention to the Vaccine Company’s connection to the Biden administration through Sonya Bernstein, who was listed as the company’s “President or Vice President” and chief financial officer at different points. Bernstein worked for the Obama administration’s  and later served a key role in the Biden administration’s COVID-19 Response Team. Additionally, Vaccine Company chief medical officer Julie Ledgerwood worked on Operation Warp Speed to develop the COVID-19 vaccines. 3

Leadership

Susan Silbermann is the chief executive officer of the Vaccine Company according to the company’s California business registration. Silberman was an executive at Pfizer for over 20 years, reaching global president of emerging markets in 2018. From January 2020 to March 2021, she was the creator and head of Pfizer’s Global COVID-19 task force which oversaw the health and safety of 75,000 Pfizer employees. Since leaving Pfizer in 2021, Silbermann has sat on the boards of Hillevax, a “vaccine-focused biotech company”; Lianbio, a Chinese pharmaceutical company that went bankrupt in October 2024; Mallinckrodt Pharmaceuticals, an American-Irish pharmaceutical company; and  IAVI, a biotech nonprofit focused on developing vaccines and antibodies for HIV, tuberculosis, and other infectious diseases. 1 4 Silbermann has also sat on the boards of GAVI, Catalyst Inc., the Johns Hopkins University Carey School of Business, the Harvard Kennedy School’s Women’s Leadership Board, Harvard University’s Defeating Malaria from Gene to Globe Initiative, and Meet the Writers. 5

In 2023, Sonya Bernstein was listed as “President or Vice President” of the Vaccine Company, and in 2024, she was listed as chief financial officer. Shortly after graduating from the University of Pennsylvania, Bernstein worked in the Obama White House at the Office of Management and Budget under Sylvia Mathews Burwell. In 2014, Burwell was appointed Secretary of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) in the Obama administration and she brought Bernstein with her to serve as deputy chief of staff and special advisor to the secretary. In 2017, Bernstein left the federal government to serve as assistant secretary for health and economic policy for New York State. In 2018, she became assistant vice president and senior director for the state’s NYC Health + Hospitals, which runs New York’s public hospitals, and oversaw the organization at the state of the COVID-19 pandemic. During the pandemic, she transferred to the Biden-Harris transition team’s COVID-19 response and then the Biden administration’s COVID-19 Response Team. She “played a leading role in designing and then implementing the administration’s program enlisting more than 40,000 pharmacies to receive and administer vaccines and standing up the more than 900 federally-supported vaccination sites with FEMA.” 3 6 7

Julie Ledgerwood is listed as the Vaccine Company’s chief medical officer. Ledgerwood worked in the Department of Health and Human Services from May 2020 to May 2022 on Operation Warp Speed to develop COVID-19 vaccines. Earlier, Ledgerwood worked at the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Disease, a part of the National Institutes of Health, for 18 years, including as the chief medical officer of the Vaccine Research Center. 1 8

In 2022, Jay Markowitz was listed as the “President or Vice President” of the Vaccine Company. Markowitz worked as a transplant surgeon at Johns Hopkins University before becoming a biotech investor and executive at T. Rowe Price, the Capital Group, and Regeneron Pharmaceuticals. As of 2024, Markowitz was a senior partner at Arch Venture Partners and a general partner at Regeneron Ventures. 3 9 10

References

  1. Kerr, Andrew. “Biden Awarded $28 Million to Mysterious ‘Vaccine Company’ Run by His COVID Adviser and Based out of a Maryland PO Box.” Free Beacon. March 5, 2025. Accessed March 16, 2025. https://freebeacon.com/biden-harris-administration/biden-awarded-28-million-to-mysterious-vaccine-company-run-by-his-covid-adviser-and-based-out-of-a-maryland-po-box/.
  2. “VACCINE COMPANY INC.” U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. Accessed March 16, 2025. https://taggs.hhs.gov/Detail/RecipDetail?arg_EntityId=7y%2B9Z%2BsV7KKhOG2qnYwO0Q%3D%3D.
  3. “The Honorable Robert F. Kennedy, Jr.” Free Beacon. March 4, 2025. Accessed March 16, 2025. https://freebeacon.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/03/Ernst-to-Kennedy-ARPA-H-Letter-March-4-2025.pdf.
  4. “Susan Silbermann.” LinkedIn. Accessed March 16, 2025. https://www.linkedin.com/in/susan-silbermann/.
  5. “Susan Silbermann.” IAVI. Accessed March 16, 2025. https://www.iavi.org/person/susan-silbermann/.
  6. “Sonya Bernstein.” LinkedIn. Accessed March 16, 2025. https://www.linkedin.com/in/sonyabernstein/.
  7. Thompson, Alex; Meyer, Theodoric; Cancryn, Adam. “Meet Biden’s Covid ‘wunderkind’.” Politico. June 3, 2021. Accessed March 16, 2025. https://www.politico.com/newsletters/west-wing-playbook/2021/06/03/meet-bidens-covid-wunderkind-493109.
  8. “Julie Ledgerwood.” LinkedIn. Accessed March 16, 2025. https://www.linkedin.com/in/julie-ledgerwood-145a4010/.
  9. “ARCH Venture Partners Announces New $1.85 Billion Fund to Create and Fund Early Stage Biotechnology Companies.” January 28, 2021. Arch Venture Partners. Accessed March 16, 2025. https://www.archventure.com/arch-venture-partners-announces-new-1-85-billion-fund-to-create-and-fund-early-stage-biotechnology-companies/.
  10. “Jay Markowitz.” LinkedIn. Accessed March 16, 2025. https://www.linkedin.com/in/jay-markowitz-353040274/.
  See an error? Let us know!