Pfizer and BioNTech have signed a $1.95 billion agreement with the Health and Human Services Department and the Defense Department for 100 million doses of a COVID-19 vaccine as soon as it is proven safe and effective.
“Depending on success in clinical trials, today’s agreement will enable the delivery of approximately 100 million doses of vaccine being developed by Pfizer and BioNTech,” HHS Secretary Alex Azar said in a statement Wednesday. Following approval or authorization by the Food and Drug Administration, the departments could also acquire another 500 million additional doses.
The deal is part of the Trump administration’s vaccine research initiative called Operation Warp Speed, which aims to bring a coronavirus vaccine to market as soon as early 2021. Pfizer will begin to deliver doses to locations across the United States at the government’s direction. The vaccine would then be made available to people “at no cost.”
The deal with Pfizer and BioNTech for the jointly researched vaccine is the largest contract granted as part of the vaccine development initiative, overtaking the $1.6 billion granted to Novavax and the $1.2 billion granted to AstraZeneca.
“Through Operation Warp Speed, we are assembling a portfolio of vaccines to increase the odds that the American people will have at least one safe, effective vaccine as soon as the end of this year,” Azar said.
The Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine is currently in clinical trials. Preliminary results from human trials in a small pool of volunteers showed it was safe and generated an immune system response. However, the vaccine has not been proven to be effective in preventing the coronavirus infection. More research with a larger sample size is needed. Pfizer’s vaccine candidate is poised to enter large-scale clinical trials designed to show whether the shots protect against the coronavirus infection. The results could become public within months.
The companies expect to manufacture globally up to 100 million doses by the end of 2020 and over 1 billion doses by the end of 2021.
