Trump Administration Buys 100 Million More Doses of COVID-19 Vaccine From Pfizer

Masooma Haq
By Masooma Haq
December 23, 2020US News
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Trump Administration Buys 100 Million More Doses of COVID-19 Vaccine From Pfizer
Long-term care patient Carlos Alegre receives the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine at Birch Patrick Skilled Nursing Facility at Sharp Chula Vista Medical Center in Chula Vista, Calif., on Dec. 21, 2020. (Mario Tama/Getty Images)

The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) and Department of Defense (DOD), will purchase an additional 100 million doses of COVID-19 investigational vaccine from Pfizer for delivery in 2021.

A DOD press statement on Wednesday stated that “Under the agreement, Pfizer will manufacture and deliver up to 100 million doses of its SARS-CoV-2 vaccine, BNT162b2, to Government designated locations.”

“Pfizer will deliver at least 70 million doses by June 30, 2021, with the balance of the 100 million doses to be delivered no later than July 31, 2021.”

The new procurement of the Pfizer vaccine is a part of Operation Warp Speed (OWS). OWS is a collaboration between HHS, DOD, private companies, and other federal agencies, to accelerate the development, production, and distribution of COVID-19 treatments.

This new purchase will allow for a “seamless transition” from the initial 100 million doses of the vaccine, which the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) authorized on Dec. 11, bringing the total doses purchased to 200 million.

The cost of the 200 million doses to the government has been $4 billion.

The Pfizer vaccine works by using messenger RNA also called mRNA, which “takes advantage of the process that cells use to make proteins in order to trigger an immune response and build immunity to a virus.” By contrast, traditional vaccines use weak versions of a disease-causing virus to stimulate the creation of antibodies.

This Pfizer agreement also leaves the possibility for another 400 million doses of the Pfizer vaccine in the later part of 2021.

“Securing more doses from Pfizer and BioNTech for delivery in the second quarter of 2021 further expands our supply of doses across the Operation Warp Speed portfolio,” said HHS Secretary Alex Azar.

“This new federal purchase can give Americans even more confidence that we will have enough supply to vaccinate every American who wants it by June 2021.”

In addition to the Pfizer vaccine, the DOD announced an agreement with Merck to develop and produce “their investigational therapeutic MK-7110 to treat hospitalized patients with severe or critical COVID-19.”

Under OWS and with federal funding, the goal is to have the Merck therapeutic (of as many as 100,000 doses) ready for delivery by June 30, 2021.

The initial analysis of the ongoing study of MK-7110 showed that the treatment “reduces the risk of respiratory failure or death by 50 percent compared to the standard of care.”

“Our agreement with Merck is the latest example of how industry and government are coming together under OWS to move potential therapeutics all the way from development through to manufacturing, enabling faster distribution,” said HHS Secretary Alex Azar in a Wednesday press statement.

From The Epoch Times

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