The United States government is reportedly close to a new deal to purchase tens of millions of extra Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine doses in exchange for assisting the pharmaceutical firm obtain better level of access to manufacturing supplies.

The pharmaceutical giant’s vaccine was the very first to gain FDA approval and early shipments went to states just last week. It has now been amalgamated with Moderna’s vaccine, which was developed in cooperation with National Institutes of Health’s scientists. 

The vaccine developed by Moderna is part of the government efforts, named Operation Warp Speed. This was specifically designed to have nearly millions of doses of vaccine ready as well as made available to ship once when FDA approved the vaccine shot.

The pharmaceutical giant so far has a contract to supply the government with nearly hundred million vaccine doses under OSW (Operation Warp Speed), however government bureaucrats have stated that it is more of arms-length relationship with the firm, having less visibility into its operations. 

In an official statement, Pfizer stated that the company would continue to work in cooperation with the United States government to get COVID-19 vaccine doses to as many U.S. citizens as possible.

After the initial testing failures, Trump administration officials are expecting to write a very disparate ending to their tenure with vaccines. OWS (Operation Warp Speed) has funded the development, manufacturing, as well as distribution of numerous doses, with the key goal of offering a free vaccine to any US citizen who needs one.

By the end of this month, OWS is on track to have nearly 40 million vaccine doses, out of which around 20 million would be assigned for first vaccinations. Doses distribution would further stretch into first week of January. Both the Moderna and Pfizer vaccines would need just two shots to be fully beneficial.

Source credit: https://apnews.com/article/coronavirus-pandemic-coronavirus-vaccine-7ca845de157dacafd8bc974de451e928