US President-elect Joe Biden's healthcare advisers have held talks with drug company executives on the government's Operation Warp Speed programme to accelerate development of a possible Covid-19 treatment, a Biden spokesman said.
Under the Trump administration, Operation Warp Speed struck deals with several drugmakers in an effort to help speed up the search for effective treatments for the disease.
The US Covid-19 death toll stands at over 240,000, with more than 10 million cases now reported in the country since the outbreak began.
"As we previously said in September, because President-elect Joe Biden is absolutely devoted to helping develop a safe and effective coronavirus vaccine as soon as possible, campaign medical advisers have received briefings from companies working to produce vaccines in order to be informed concerning the process," Mr Biden's spokesman Andrew Bates said in an e-mail statement on Sunday.
Mr Biden's advisers met officials of companies that had Covid-19 vaccines or therapies in late-stage clinical trials in September and October, Bloomberg News had reported earlier.
The report added that the meetings were aimed at gathering information concerning the development, manufacture and distribution of shots to ward off the coronavirus, as well as therapies to treat the sick.
Mr Biden has vowed to "listen to the science", with his coronavirus plan calling for scaling up testing and contact tracing and promising to appoint a "supply commander" to oversee supply lines of critical equipment.
Late the previous month, Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar said the United States is likely to have enough safe and effective Covid-19 vaccines available to inoculate the most vulnerable Americans by the end of this year.
In their talks, Mr Biden's advisers indicated to drug company officials that his administration would not be interested in making changes to Warp Speed that would disrupt work in getting new vaccines to market, Bloomberg said, adding that his administration would want to assist the companies' efforts when Mr Biden assumes office.
REUTERS