Vials in cartons containing the Pfizer-BioNTech Covid-19 vaccine are being prepared for shipment on December 13, 2020 at Pfizer Global Supply’s Kalamazoo manufacturing facility in Kalamazoo, Michigan.
Morry Gash | AFP | Getty Images
Albert Bourla, CEO of Pfizer, said the company is negotiating with the federal government to provide an additional 100 million Covid-19 vaccine doses next year, as Americans will receive some of the first shots on Monday.
Pfizer and the US are working out timing details, Bourla said Monday morning in an interview with CNBC’s “Squawk Box”. The company could provide many of these cans in the third quarter of 2021, but the U.S. government is pushing for them in the second quarter, he said.
“We are working very cooperatively to find a solution and allocate that 100 million [doses] in the second quarter if possible or in many of them, “Bourla said, adding the company has not yet signed an agreement with the US.
The comment came after the Food and Drug Administration approved Pfizer and BioNTech’s emergency coronavirus vaccine late Friday. The vaccine has been approved for people aged 16 and over.
The first doses of a Pfizer vaccine with BioNTech were shipped to the US over the weekend. Trucks carrying boxes of vaccine doses left Pfizer’s Kalamazoo, Michigan manufacturing facility on Sunday and should arrive on Monday, according to Pfizer. The company said 189 boxes for a total of 184,275 cans will be shipped to locations in all 50 states and 4 boxes will be shipped to US territories. The vaccine consists of two doses, with the doses given three weeks apart.
Initial doses of the Pfizer vaccine will be limited as production begins. Officials predict it will be months before everyone in the US who wants to be vaccinated is vaccinated. The vaccine is expected to be distributed in phases where the most critical U.S. workers and vulnerable people receive it first. The CDC has given states an outline recommending that priority be given to health workers and nursing homes first. However, states may distribute the vaccine at their own discretion.
General Gustave Perna, who oversees logistics for Operation Warp Speed, said Wednesday the government would distribute 2.9 million doses of the vaccine within 24 hours of FDA approval, followed by another 2 , 9 million doses 21 days later for patients to get their second shot. Pfizer’s vaccine takes two doses three weeks apart.
Pfizer has already signed a contract with the U.S. government to supply 100 million doses of the vaccine under the Trump administration’s Operation Warp Speed vaccine program, enough to vaccinate 50 million people. Under the agreement, the Americans will receive the vaccine for free.
The previous Monday, Pfizer board member Dr. Scott Gottlieb told CNBC that the US government turned down an offer to receive additional doses of the Pfizer vaccine in November.
The vaccine couldn’t come at a more crucial time. Hospitals in the U.S. already have higher numbers of Covid patients than ever before, and the country’s outbreak is poised to break even grimmer records. The director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Dr. Robert Redfield, warned earlier this month that the next few months of the pandemic would be “some of the most difficult in the history of this country’s public health.”
President Donald Trump previously said he would invoke the Defense Production Act if necessary to ensure Americans can get a vaccine.
Bourla said Monday it was “very positive,” he said. “I hope they will do that very soon as we are facing critical delivery restrictions on some components in particular. But I think they will, so it won’t be a problem.”
– CNBC’s Spencer Kimball contributed to this report.
