The key takeaway for me:

“This process takes several weeks, so there is no newly submitted grant from one company that is reviewed differently from, or faster, than all the others.

I suspect that some drugs/companies you might be thinking about and referred to in your email may have already been supported by NIH grants and are now being moved quickly through established pipelines. Remdesivir, e.g., was funded by NIAID through a grant awarded to UNC in 2017 (which underwent peer review).”