The spread of coronavirus vaccines in lower-income countries could soon get a big boost. On Thursday, two sources familiar with the matter told Reuters that Pfizer (NYSE: PFE) and BioNTech (NASDAQ: BNTX) agreed to deliver a program with the COVID-19 vaccine led by the World Health Organization (WHO).
The COVAX program is a group effort coordinated by WHO, the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations (CEPI), and Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance. The program aims to secure 2 billion doses by this year to protect vulnerable people and frontline health workers in participating countries. All countries are eligible to participate, but the program plans to deliver approximately 1.3 billion doses to 92 low- and middle-income countries.
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Details regarding the number of doses that Pfizer and BioNTech agreed to and the price per dose that the COVAX program intends to pay the partners are still unclear. None of the companies have officially announced an agreement to supply COVAX, but they are expected to fill the gaps on Friday.
This is not the first vaccine approved in some countries by the COVAX program. In December, the COVAX program entered into a pre-purchase agreement with AstraZeneca (NASDAQ: AZN) for 170 million doses of a coronavirus candidate authorized in the United Kingdom and India. Johnson & Johnson (NYSE: JNJ) also has an agreement with the program to deliver 500 million doses of its candidate vaccine candidate, which is expected to deliver clinical trial data any day.