Still not the same thing as taking R&D money from the government.

How? To use a scenario that HNers are likely more familiar with: this is like when a video game company does preorders for a video game.

Or a concert promoter sells tickets before the event is built, etc.

The purpose is to offset risk. Pfizer didn't have to take a risk on this vaccine, because they had already sold enough of it to cover their development costs. They may have "used their own money", but that ultimately comes down to an accounting technicality for a company that large.

Suppose the vaccines didn't work or had massive side-effects. Then Pfizer wouldn't get any money. Conversely Moderna would still have gotten much of this research money.

IMO a pre-order guarantee is not the same as taking money that is spelled out as a development-funding commitment (https://investors.modernatx.com/news-releases/news-release-d...).

Moderna's initial funding didn't have an order attached to it, not that was disclosed. In August the US Government did go back and actually purchase vaccines under a separate agreement (https://www.hhs.gov/about/news/2020/08/11/trump-administrati...). Also:

> The May 21, April 16, and March 30 HHS agreements with AstraZeneca, Moderna, and Johnson & Johnson respectively include investments in manufacturing capabilities.

(https://www.hhs.gov/coronavirus/explaining-operation-warp-sp...)

Ask Philips and their ventilator division how much these guarantees are worth.

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-philips-us-ventilators-id...

The pre-order guarantees (for all manufacturers) exist to allow them to begin manufacturing of their vaccines before their testing could be completed. If it turned/turns out a company's vaccine fails trials they would be out millions of dollars for vaccine doses that will go in the trash. More importantly they have finite manufacturing limits.

If all told the various companies can manufacture a million doses a day it will take a year to manufacture enough vaccines for everyone in the US. By the government pre-paying for the vaccines the manufacturers could spin up the lines when they were in early trial phases. Six months worth of trials means many tens of millions of doses available as soon as the FDA gives approval of the vaccine.

From the article:

> The arrangement is an advance-purchase agreement, meaning that the company won’t get paid until they deliver the vaccines

They didn't take funding, they signed a contingent contract. Only their own money was at risk.

Also, the $2B order was only a fraction of what was proposed for an initial order, which the Trump Administration for some baffling reason reduced.

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/12/07/us/trump-covid-vaccine-pf...

It's not baffling: the Pfizer vaccine required extremely cold temperatures to distribute and was more expensive than other vaccines under development.

It also was the most promising and those lack of orders from Pfizer did not result in an increase somewhere else.

You are being deceptive in saying so.