The United States on Wednesday announced an agreement with Pfizer and BioNTech for 105 million doses of Covid vaccine for Americans this fall.
The $3.2 billion deal signed between the companies and the U.S. Departments of Health and Defense includes vaccines for babies, young children, adolescents and adults and possibly Omicron-specific vaccines, a panel of government experts said on Tuesday recommended.
Delivery will begin in late summer and continue into the fourth quarter, the companies said. The contract gives the US the option to procure up to 300 million doses.
“The Biden-Harris administration is committed to doing everything in its power to continue making vaccines freely and widely available to Americans — and this is an important first step as we prepare for the fall,” Xavier said Becerra, Secretary of Health and Human Services, in a statement.
President Joe Biden’s administration has asked Congress for $23.5 billion in additional Covid funds, but a bill has yet to pass.
As a result, the federal government was “forced to redistribute $10 billion of existing funds and draw billions of dollars from efforts to combat Covid-19,” the statement said, with the new vaccines procured through that redistribution.
White House officials have previously said that without new funding, future vaccines may be given away for free only to those at highest risk.
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