No, it took years to develop the vaccine. Luckily they started on it before they even knew whether there would be a big payoff. Otherwise we wouldn't have either the Moderna or Pfizer vaccine.

I'm generally against pharmaceutical companies charging ridiculous prices for their drugs, but we've benefited from the fact that they use this money to pursue risky research opportunities. If the chance at a big payoff wasn't there, big pharma might not have had this in the hopper. Government funding alone probably can't incentivize pharma to continue pursuing long-shot bets at their current level. Now I have to think about which option I would prefer- cheaper prescriptions or a better chance at being prepared for catastrophic events.