The U.S. government has inked a nearly $2 billion deal for 100 million doses of a vaccine for Covid19 pharmaceutical company Pfizer is developing. The U.S. has placed an initial order of 100 million doses for $1.95 billion pending FDA authorization, with an option to acquire up to 500 million additional doses.
The government is looking to provide the vaccine to all Americans for free.
“We’ve been committed to making the impossible possible by working tirelessly to develop and produce in record time a safe and effective vaccine to help bring an end to this global health crisis,” Pfizer chairman and CEO Dr. Albert Bourla said in a press release.
“We made the early decision to begin clinical work and large-scale manufacturing at our own risk to ensure that product would be available immediately if our clinical trials prove successful and an Emergency Use Authorization is granted.”
Pfizer is working on the vaccine in a joint effort with German biotech company BioNTech. The companies expect to begin phase 2b/3 of their trials later this month. If the ongoing trials are successful the companies will seek Emergency Use Authorization or some other regulatory approval by October.
The firms expect to manufacture up to 100 million doses by the end of 2020 and more than 1.3 billion doses by the end of 2021.
Photo by Lauri Silvennoinen