The Department of Health and Human Services’ bioresearch arm and the Department of Defense have earmarked $1.95B to procure 100M doses of an investigational COVID-19 vaccine Pfizer developed with German pharmaceutical company BioNTech.
Pfizer will supply the vaccine to the U.S. government if the Food and Drug Administration approves the potential coronavirus treatment after Phase 3 tests on drug efficacy and safety are completed, HHS said Wednesday.
HHS' Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority, along with the DoD Joint Program Executive Office for Chemical, Biological, Radiological and Nuclear Defense and U.S. Army Contracting Command, will fund the production of initial doses. The deal includes an option for the government to buy 500M more doses from Pfizer.
The company would start to deliver the vaccine in the fourth quarter, depending on the outcome of clinical trials and the FDA's decision.
The Trump administration aims to distribute 300M COVID-19 vaccine doses to the public by the end of the year as part its Operation Warp Speed initiative.
