Pfizer Inc. and their partner BioNTech made an announcement on Wednesday that they signed a $3.2 billion deal with the U.S. government for 105 million doses of their COVID-19 vaccine. They are also set to deliver the Vaccines by this summer’s last only.
What does the new $3.2 billion deal include?
According to Pfizer, the $3.2 billion deal includes supplies of a retooled omicron-adapted vaccine, pending regulatory clearance. Drugmakers have been developing vaccines to target the omicron variant that became dominant last winter. In the new deal, the average price per dose is over $30, a more than 50% increase from the $19.50 per dose the U.S. government paid in its initial contract with Pfizer. Some of the vaccines included in the contract will be embarked for adults and will be of single dose.
U.S. Department of Health and Human Services official Dawn O’Connell said in a statement, “We look forward to taking delivery of these new variant-specific vaccines and working with state and local health departments, pharmacies, healthcare providers, federally qualified health centers, and other partners to make them available in communities around the country this fall,”
Change of COVID-19 Boosters
U.S. Food and Drug Administration advisers on Tuesday recommended a change in the design of COVID-19 booster shots for this fall in order to combat more recently circulating variants of the coronavirus.
According to a report by Reuters, “The U.S. government has distributed close to 450 million doses of the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine in the United States since it was first authorized in December 2020, according to data from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Over 350 million of those doses have been administered.
Because the Biden administration was unable to line up more COVID-19 funding from Congress earlier this month, it was forced to reallocate $10 billion of existing funding to pay for additional vaccines and treatments.”
