One of America’s biggest companies has teamed up with one of the country’s least-known federal agencies to make doses of a coronavirus vaccine. Lots of them. 

The deal underscores the important role that the U.S. Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority, or BARDA, plays behind the scenes in protecting Americans—and everyone, really—from pandemics.

New Jersey pharmaceutical giant Johnson & Johnson, America’s 37th-biggest company by revenue, on Monday announced it was working with the Washington, D.C.-based BARDA to identify the best coronavirus vaccine and then produce a billion doses at a cost of around $1 billion.