Pfizer Inc and BioNTech SE announced plans to expand their agreement with the U.S. government by providing an additional 500 million doses of the companies’ COVID-19 vaccine at a not-for-profit price for donation to low- and lower-middle-income countries and the organizations that support them. This expanded agreement brings the total number of doses to be supplied to the U.S. government for donation to these countries to one billion.
Consistent with the initial agreement, the U.S. government will allocate doses of the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 Vaccine to 92 low- and lower-middle-income countries as defined by Gavi’s COVAX Advanced Market Commitment (AMC) and the 55 member states of the African Union. Deliveries of the initial 500 million doses began in August 2021, and the total one billion doses under the expanded agreement are expected to be delivered by the end of September 2022. The current plan is to produce these doses in Pfizer’s U.S. facilities located in Kalamazoo, MI, Andover, MA, Chesterfield, MO, and McPherson, KS.
“COVID-19 is a virus that knows no borders, and as a result has had a devastating grip on our world. This is the reason we unleashed the full power of our resources to develop a safe and effective vaccine against this virus and help ensure everyone – regardless of their financial condition, race, religion or geography – has the potential to access it,” said Albert Bourla, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, Pfizer. “In just nine months, Pfizer and BioNTech have delivered our COVID-19 vaccine to 130 countries and territories in every region of the world – and our expanded collaboration with the U.S. will help us bring even more doses to those in need. I want to thank President Biden for his unwavering leadership in working to put an end to this tragic pandemic, not just in the U.S., but worldwide.”
“BioNTech, Pfizer and our partners are working day and night to make our vaccine available to people around the world. We are therefore particularly excited and grateful to mark the next milestone in collaboration with the U.S. government, which will further accelerate the delivery of our vaccine to people in the poorest regions,” said Ugur Sahin, M.D., CEO and Co-founder of BioNTech. “In the short term, we have pledged to deliver at least one billion doses this year and at least one billion doses next year to low- and middle-income countries. In parallel, we are exploring how to build a sustainable mRNA production infrastructure in low-income countries to democratize access to vaccines in the mid- and long-term. This applies to both individual production steps and complete manufacturing.”
Overall, Pfizer and BioNTech have shipped more than 1.5 billion COVID-19 vaccine doses worldwide. The companies are firmly committed to working towards equitable and affordable access for COVID-19 vaccines for all people around the world, actively working with governments and health partners worldwide, and have pledged to provide two billion doses to low- and middle-income countries in 2021 and 2022 – at least one billion each year. In addition to the supply agreement with the U.S. government, this includes direct supply agreements with individual country governments and a direct supply agreement with COVAX for 40 million doses in 2021.
The vaccine, which is based on BioNTech’s proprietary mRNA technology, was developed by both BioNTech and Pfizer. BioNTech is the Marketing Authorization Holder in the United States, the European Union, the United Kingdom, Canada and the holder of emergency use authorizations or equivalents in the United States (jointly with Pfizer) and other countries. Submissions to pursue regulatory approvals in those countries where emergency use authorizations or equivalent were initially granted are planned.
