The United States will procure an additional 200 million doses of the vaccine manufactured by the Pfizer-BioNTech alliance, and has positioned itself for a serum against the variants, Pfizer said on Friday.
These new doses will bring the total of orders from the United States to their population to 500 million doses, the company said in a press release.
In detail, 110 million of these additional doses should be delivered by December 31, and the remaining 90 million doses before April 30, 2022. The United States has also put a purchase option on a next version of the vaccine, "taking into account potential variants", as well as new formulations of the vaccine, "if they are available and authorized" by health authorities, says Pfizer.
Towards a third dose?
The Pfizer-BioNTech alliance said at the beginning of July to plan to request "in the coming weeks" the authorization for a third dose of its vaccine, in the United States and in Europe in particular, after "encouraging results", in order to increase the effectiveness of his vaccine.
US health officials have reacted cautiously, saying that "Americans who have been fully immunized do not need a booster at this time," but saying they are ready "to administer booster doses if and when the science will have shown that they are necessary ”.
The spread of the Delta variant around the world, which initially appeared in India and the most contagious since the outbreak of the Covid-19 pandemic, is currently causing contamination to rise sharply.
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Pfizer-BioNTech
United States
Anti-covid vaccine
Health