Pfizer, BioNTech To Supply US Government 600M Doses Of Coronavirus Vaccine

Pfizer Inc. PFE and BioNTech SE – ADR BNTX have announced the award of another contract to supply their jointly-developed coronavirus vaccine candidate that's currently in Phase 1/2 development.

What Happened: Pfizer and BioNTech said Wednesday the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services and the Department of Defense have executed an agreement with the companies regarding BNT162, their investigational vaccine against SARS-CoV-2, to meet the Operation Warp Speed's goal of begin delivering 300 million doses of the vaccine in 2021.

Under the agreement, the U.S. government placed an initial order of 100 million doses of BNT162 upon obtaining of Emergency Use Authorization, or EUA, or approval from the FDA. The initial order is valued at $1.95 billion.

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The agreement also provides the government acquiring up to 500 million additional doses.

"Americans will receive the vaccine for free consistent with U.S. government's commitment for free access for COVID-19 vaccines," the companies said.

Earlier this week, the U.K. government had placed orders for 30 million doses of the combo's vaccine candidate.

What's Next? The companies said if the ongoing Phase 1/2 studies are successful, they would seek EUA, or some form of regulatory approval as early as October. The companies also reiterated the timeline for the start of a large, global Phase 2b/3 study later this month, contingent on getting regulatory clearance.

In pre-market trading, Pfizer shares were adding 5.04% to $38.54 and BioNTech was rallying 7.28% to $98.27.