US, Pfizer and BioNTech agree to provide extra 500 million COVID-19 vaccine doses to developing world

Tacking onto President Joe Biden’s call to make the United States an arsenal of vaccines for the world, Pfizer Inc. and BioNTech SE agreed to expand an arrangement with the U.S. government and provide another 500 million doses of their COVID-19 vaccine for low and lower-middle-income nations.

These doses will be provided at a not-for-profit price and will include doses for organizations supporting the nations in question. All told, this brings the total number of doses to be supplied through the governmental donation initiative to 1 billion. The latest donations began delivery in August 2021. Standing to benefit are 92 countries identified by Gavi’s COVAX Advanced Market Commitment and the 55 states of the African Union.

All vaccine doses are expected to be delivered by the end of September 2022.

“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,” Albert Bourla, chairman and CEO of Pfizer, said. “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.”

Ugur Sahin, CEO and co-founder of BioNTech, took that further, noting that the 1 billion dose pledge for these lower income countries is being conducted in parallel with the growth of the companies’ production capabilities.

“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,” Sahin said. “This applies to both individual production steps and complete manufacturing.”

Currently, the doses are expected to be produced at Pfizer’s U.S. facilities in Michigan, Massachusetts, Missouri and Kansas. These doses will be produced in addition to the direct supply agreements the companies have produced with individual governments and a direct supply agreement of 40 million doses with COVAX this year.