Pfizer is approaching agreement with US government to provide additional doses of COVID-19 vaccine

(Reuters) -Pfizer Inc. is close to reaching an agreement with the US government to provide at least tens of millions of additional doses of its COVID-19 vaccine candidate next year in exchange for a government directive giving it more access. good at New York Times consumables reported Tuesday.

An agreement could be announced on Wednesday, the newspaper reported https://www.nytimes.com/2020/12/22/us/pfizer-vaccine-trump-administration.html, citing people familiar with the talks.

“We continue to work with the US government to get doses of our COVID-19 vaccine to as many Americans as possible,” Pfizer said in an email.

“The company is unable to comment on any confidential discussions that may take place with the US government.”

Pfizer and partner BioNTech SE, as well as rival Moderna Inc., recently won US emergency use authorization for their respective candidates.

The US government has signed an agreement with Pfizer for 100 million doses of its vaccine, which has begun to be launched across the country.

As part of the new negotiations, the government is requesting an additional 100 million doses from Pfizer from April to June, according to the NYT report.

Instead, the agreement calls on the government to invoke the Defense Production Act to give Pfizer better access to about nine specialty products it needs to make the vaccine, the report said.

White House officials did not immediately respond to Reuters’ requests for comment.

(Reporting by Manojna Maddipatla in Bengaluru; Editing by Maju Samuel)

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