Government agrees to purchase 100 million additional doses of Pfizer Covid-19 vaccine

WASHINGTON – The Trump administration announced on Wednesday that it will purchase an additional 100 million doses of Pfizer’s Covid-19 vaccine, ensuring that all Americans who want to be vaccinated can be by June.

The Department of Health and Human Services announcement says Pfizer will manufacture and deliver up to 100 million doses of the vaccine to government designated sites. This is in addition to the 100 million doses already purchased by the US government.

Under the deal, Pfizer will deliver at least 70 million doses by the end of June and 30 million by the end of July. This brings the total number of Pfizer vaccine doses purchased by the federal government to 200 million, HHS said.

“Obtaining more doses from Pfizer and BioNTech for delivery in the second quarter of 2021 further expands our dose offering in the Operation Warp Speed ​​portfolio,” HHS Secretary Alex Azar said Wednesday. “This new federal purchase may give Americans even more confidence that we will have enough supplies to immunize all Americans who want them by June 2021”

Biden’s incoming administration, however, will be responsible for releasing the vaccine to the public next year. Biden takes office on January 20.

The Food and Drug Administration recently cleared the Pfizer vaccine for emergency use, and it was delivered to many healthcare facilities last week for the first vaccines to be given to frontline workers. The FDA then approved a similar Covid-19 vaccine from biotech company Moderna last week and distribution began on Monday.

The administration’s new deal comes as hundreds of millions of people in the United States wait to be vaccinated. Earlier this month, Dr Scott Gottlieb, a former FDA commissioner and Pfizer board member, said the White House had declined the company’s “multiple” offers to strike a deal on more than vaccine doses for the second quarter of 2021..