U.S., Pfizer Seal New Vaccine Deal for 100 Million More Doses

Pfizer and the Trump administration announced a new vaccine deal on Wednesday where the pharmaceutical company will provide an additional 100 million doses by the end of July.

This vaccine deal comes as the U.S. faces a potential shortage in shots.

Moderna is also included in the vaccine deal, meaning the U.S. has not secured enough doses to vaccinate all but about 60 million adult Americans who are eligible for the vaccine, reported New York Times.

This summer, Pfizer first agreed to provide an initial 100 million doses for the U.S. before their shot as approved by regulators.

Pfizer, under the new agreement, will ensure 70 million doses of the vaccine by the end of July, where the remaining 30 million in the deal will follow by July.

It doubled the amount of vaccines initially promised in their contract with the government for a total price of about $4 billion, reported Reuters.

Pfizer pegged the price of each vaccine dose at $19.5, so the new agreement will be worth $1.95 billion, according to a statement from Pfizer.

Pfizer announced their second agreement with the U.S. government in a press release on Wednesday.

400 Million Doses Pledged in Existing Vaccine Deals

There have been 400 million doses pledged by Pfizer and Moderna, the only two vaccine producers approved for emergency distribution to Americans, so far.

All these are expected to be given out by the next seven months. Both required two doses to be fully effective.

As part of its deal with Pfizer, the government agreed to invoke the Defense Production Act to that will help Pfizer get access to nine specialized products in vaccine production.

Even though this part of the agreement was not said in the company's statement, or the government's, it was said to be an important part of the agreement, sources told New York Times.

"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," Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar said in a statement.

Azar said this purchase will hopefully build more confidence that there will be enough vaccine supplies for each American who wants to get it by 2021.

The incoming Biden administration is expected to take charge in the distribution of the vaccine next year, said a report from NBC News.

Government Worries About Pfizer Squeezing Supply Chain

Pfizer and the government and still working out the details of distribution for the second quarter of 2021 and are negotiating some terms of their agreement.

One of the hurdles in negotiating with Pfizer is its commitments to other nations that have been able to lock in larger vaccine orders, according to people familiar with the matter.

Some who were involved in the negotiations also said the government was concerned that prioritizing Pfizer would cause a squeeze in the supply chain, hindering other vaccine makers.

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, more than 600,000 Americans were already vaccinated against COVID-19 as of Monday.

Most of the first shots went to healthcare workers ad nursing home residents, were tagged as top priority by the country's health authorities.