LONDON / FRANKFURT (Reuters) – Pfizer and BioNTech have agreed to supply their COVID-19 vaccine to the co-led COVAX vaccine scheme for the World Health Organization, two sources familiar with the agreement said. in the project aimed at lower-income countries.
According to the sources, the transaction will be announced on Friday, which does not want to be named due to the confidentiality of the agreement.
Details about the size of the deal or the price per dose COVAX would pay were not immediately clear, but sources said the grant was likely to be relatively small. One source said that the reason for the limited volume was that the doses were mainly intended for health workers in the countries serving COVAX.
BioNTech declined to comment, while Pfizer did not respond to requests for comment. Spokesmen for the WHO and the GAVI vaccine alliance, which co-lead with the COVAX scheme, also declined to comment.
Senior WHO adviser Bruce Aylward said on Monday that the COVAX scheme was in ‘very detailed discussions’ with Pfizer, which has already dedicated hundreds of millions of doses to various affluent countries this year, and is expected to be able to get the vaccine ‘a lot’ in COVAX. include. soon ”.
The COVAX scheme will distribute COVID-19 vaccines to low- and middle-income countries in February.
Ukraine said earlier on Thursday that its first delivery of COVID-19 vaccine under the COVAX scheme could begin in the first half of February – with 210,000 doses of the Moderna, Pfizer or AstraZeneca vaccine.
COVAX said it hopes to deliver more than 2 billion doses of COVID-19 worldwide this year. An updated forecast published on Thursday states that they plan to deliver about 20 billion doses in 9221 to 92 poorer countries, covering about 27% of their population.
The scheme, led by the WHO, the GAVI Vaccine Alliance and the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations (CEPI), was drafted last year amid concerns that poorer countries would lose out while rich countries scrambled to buy COVID-19 vaccines to vaccinate their population. .
COVAX has so far secured future AstraZeneca vaccines, along with the University of Oxford; the Serum Institute of India (SII) as well as with Sanofi and its partner GSK. It also has a memorandum of understanding on deliveries from Johnson & Johnson.
The Pfizer agreement would be COVAX’s second, after the agreement with AstraZeneca, which covers a product with regulatory approval in some countries.
The additional commitment by Pfizer comes as a result of frustration in European countries over the unexpected stock of the American drugmaker. Pfizer said last week it would reduce deliveries until early February to improve production capacity for a later production improvement.
The Pfizer and BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine is so far the only shot that has approved the WHO’s emergency use.
Reuters reported on Wednesday that the WHO plans to approve several COVID-19 vaccines from Western and Chinese manufacturers in the coming weeks and months, as it aims for rapid rollout in poorer countries.
BioNTech and Pfizer said this month that they plan to deliver 2 billion doses of vaccine this year, up from a previous target of 1.3 billion.
Their dish is more complicated to transport and store, requiring ultra-cold freezers, which may not be practical for poorer countries with hot climates.
Reporting by Kate Kelland in London and Ludwig Burger in Frankfurt; Edited by Josephine Mason and Hugh Lawson