The United States has placed an initial order for 100 million doses if regulatory approval is granted (representation)
Frankfurt am Main:
The U.S. government has agreed to pay nearly $ 2 billion for 100 million doses of a potential coronavirus vaccine, German company BioNTech said on Wednesday.
BioNTech, which is developing the drug with US pharmaceutical giant Pfizer, said in a statement that Americans will receive the future vaccine “for free” in accordance with “the Trump administration’s” commitment to free access to COVID-19 vaccines. “
Under the deal, the US government has placed an initial order for 100 million doses to be delivered if regulatory approval is granted.
The US government also has the option to purchase up to 500 million additional doses, BioNTech added.
Laboratories around the world are rushing to produce a vaccine to help end the worst health crisis in more than a century.
More than 200 candidate vaccines are currently in development, of which about two dozen are in clinical trials with human volunteers.
BioNTech and Pfizer have narrowed down their vaccine candidates to two pioneers and are awaiting the green light to begin a mass trial involving 30,000 healthy volunteers, which could happen later this month.
Subject to positive results and regulatory approvals, Pfizer and BioNTech plan to manufacture up to 100 million doses by the end of 2020, and “potentially over 1.3 billion doses by the end of 2021 “.
Their method of vaccination is based on the use of messenger RNA, a genetic code that slips into human cells to make them generate antibodies specifically adapted to the coronavirus.
Trials so far have shown that their treatment triggers “robust” antibody and T cell immune responses against the novel coronavirus, according to BioNTech.
The agreement between the United States, Pfizer and BioNTech “increases the chances of having a safe and effective vaccine by the end of this year,” said US health official Alex Azar.
A spokeswoman for BioNTech told AFP that two injections would likely be needed for maximum protection, with the booster following seven days after the first injection.
Based on the price paid by the US government, therefore, it would cost $ 39 to immunize a person against the deadly virus.
The University of Oxford and AstraZeneca are also working on a vaccine, which they have promised to make available “at cost”, in the amount of about $ 2.90 each.
(With the exception of the title, this story was not edited by GalacticGaming staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)
