Still retreating from coronavirus, the U.S. government has chosen to double its uptake of Pfizer (NYSE: PFE) and BioNTech’s (NASDAQ: BNTX) Vaccine against coronavirus. Both companies announced Wednesday morning that the federal government has agreed with them to deliver an additional 100 million doses of BNT162b2, adding to the original order of 100 million doses.
The Feds will pay $ 1.95 billion for the new order.
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Pfizer and BioNTech said they expect to complete the total order of 200 million doses by July 31, 2021. Regarding the new part of the order, companies said that at least 70 million doses will be delivered by the end of June, the rest will come within the following month.
“This new federal purchase can give Americans even more confidence that we will have enough supplies to vaccinate any American who wants it by June 2021,” quoted Corporate Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Alex Azar.
Nevertheless, that may not be the end of the government’s commitment. Under the terms of the agreement with Pfizer and BioNTech, it has an option to secure an additional 400 million doses of BNT162b2 if deemed necessary.
Earlier this month, the vaccine received Emergency Use Authorization (EUA) from the Food and Drug Administration (FDA). The rollout has been relatively fast; Currently, some frontline health professionals and senior officials like Vice President Mike Pence have received their initial jabs (BNT162b2 is a two-dose vaccine).
While Pfizer’s share rose sharply (by 2.1%) in the late afternoon trading on Wednesday, gains from S&P 500 index, the BioNTech share fell by almost 0.8%.