RALEIGH, N.C. _ Americans will be able to get a coronavirus vaccine for free under a deal with its makers, the companies say.
The U.S. government placed an order for 100 million doses of the COVID-19 vaccine candidate BNT162, developed by Pfizer and BioNTech, the companies announced Wednesday. The U.S. will receive the doses once the vaccine, which is currently in clinical trials, is manufactured and given approval or emergency use authorization by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.
Once approved, it will be available to Americans for free, the release says.
The U.S. will pay $1.95 billion for the initial doses once they're received and will be able to order up to 500 million more doses, according to the companies.
Pfizer and BioNTech say they're on track to move to the next phase of trials as early as this month and to seek emergency use authorization or other approval as soon as October.
The companies anticipate having 100 million doses ready by the end of the year and potentially more than 1.3 billion doses ready by the end of next year.
The deal with the U.S. means the country will receive the first 100 million doses, according to a news release from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.
The agreement is part of Operation Warp Speed, an initiative by the Trump administration to have 300 million doses of a safe, effective COVID-19 vaccine on the market by January 2021.
It involves the government supporting vaccine development and buying doses of candidates before they are approved so they can be distributed quickly once they are. Congress has put nearly $10 million toward the effort through the CARES Act and other funding.
"Expanding Operation Warp Speed's diverse portfolio by adding a vaccine from Pfizer and BioNTech increases the odds that we will have a safe, effective vaccine as soon as the end of this year," HHS Secretary Alex Azar said in the release from the companies.
Vaccine development can take years, but dozens of research groups are racing to get one on the market as health experts have said it's our best hope in ending the pandemic.
President Donald Trump has maintained that a vaccine will be ready by the end of this year and Dr. Anthony Fauci, the country's top infectious disease expert, has said it's "conceivable," NBC News reported in May. Other health experts have said it will take a "medical miracle."
