Pfizer Nears Deal to Supply More Vaccine

An agreement could be announced as soon as Wednesday, according to the person, though other people said they weren’t aware negotiations were that far along or were for 100 million doses.

The New York Times earlier reported that the U.S. was close to an agreement with Pfizer for additional doses.

In July, the U.S. government agreed to pay Pfizer and its German partner, BioNTech BNTX -5.54% SE, $1.95 billion for the first 100 million doses of the vaccine, or $19.50 per dose, with options to buy an additional 500 million doses.

The first such doses started to be distributed in the U.S. after the Food and Drug Administration authorized emergency use of the Pfizer vaccine this month.

But Pfizer had offered to provide additional doses to the government in the summer, and federal officials declined. More recently they began discussions for additional doses.

The Operation Warp Speed chief adviser, Moncef Slaoui, told reporters Monday that the government has continued to have conversations with Pfizer “to support their efforts to ensure that they would be able to provide us with an additional 100 million doses in the second quarter of 2021.”

He added the negotiations were “progressing very well.”

In November, Pfizer reduced by half the number of doses it expected to manufacture globally by year’s end, to 50 million, partly because of challenges in expanding its manufacturing capabilities and securing raw materials.

One sticking point in the talks to provide more doses is whether the U.S. government would use its authority to give Pfizer priority access to the raw materials the company needs to make its vaccine, the person familiar with the talks said.

The government has already boosted the expected U.S. supply of the second Covid-19 vaccine, from Moderna Inc. MRNA -8.98%

This month the government exercised an option to buy an additional 100 million doses of Moderna’s vaccine, doubling the contracted supply to 200 million doses by the end of June 2021.

Moderna’s vaccine began distribution this week after receiving FDA authorization.

The federal government agreed to pay $1.5 billion for the first 100 million doses of Moderna’s vaccine and $1.65 billion for the additional 100 million doses, and has options to buy more.

Write to Peter Loftus at [email protected] and Rebecca Ballhaus at [email protected]