The vials containing the Pfizer-Bioendech Covit-19 vaccine boxes are ready to be shipped on December 13, 2020 to the Pfizer Global Supply Kalamazoo manufacturing plant in Kalamazoo, Michigan.
Mori Cash | AFP | Getty Images
Pfizer CEO Albert Burla said the company is in talks with the federal government to deliver an additional 100 million Covid-19 vaccine doses next year because Americans will receive some of the first shots on Monday.
Borla told CNBC’s “Squawk Box” in an interview Monday morning that Pfizer and the United States were developing details about the time. The company could deliver many of those sizes in the third quarter of 2021, but the U.S. government is pushing for it in the second quarter, he said.
“We are working very cooperatively to find a solution and try to allocate that 100 million [doses] If the second quarter is over or there are a lot of them, “Borla said, adding that the company has not yet signed an agreement with the United States.
The comment comes after the Food and Drug Administration approved Pfizer and Bioendech’s corona virus vaccine for emergency use late Friday. The vaccine is approved for people 16 years of age and older.
The first doses of the Pfizer vaccine with Bioendech began shipping across the United States over the weekend. Trucks loaded with vaccine-sized boxes are expected to leave Pfizer’s manufacturing facility in Michigan on Sunday and arrive on Monday, Pfizer said. The company said 189 boxes with a total size of 184,275 will be shipped to sites in all 50 states and 4 boxes will be shipped to US regions. Vaccination is two weeks, administered at three-week intervals.
Officials predict that initial doses of the Pfizer vaccine will be limited by increasing production, and that it will take months to vaccinate everyone who wants to be vaccinated in the United States. The vaccine is expected to be distributed in stages, with the most important American workers and vulnerable people receiving it first. The CDC has provided an outline recommending that states prioritize health care workers and nursing homes, but states can distribute them as the vaccine is appropriate.
General Gustav Berna, who oversees logistics for Operation Warp Speed, said on Wednesday that the government would distribute 2.9 million doses of the vaccine within 24 hours of the FDA approving emergency use, and that an additional 2.9 million doses would be given to patients after 21 days. Get their second shot.
Pfizer has already contracted with the U.S. government to provide 100 million doses of the vaccine as part of Operation Warp Speed, the Trump administration’s vaccination program, which is enough to vaccinate 50 million people. Under the agreement, Americans will receive the vaccine for free.
Earlier on Monday, when Pfizer board member Dr Scott Godlip was interviewed by CNBC, the US government turned down the opportunity to receive more of Pfizer’s vaccine in November.
“There has been a lot of talk with the U.S. government about taking more supplies in the second quarter. The company did not take that offer in November,” Godlip told The Squaw Box.
The vaccine has not yet arrived at the critical time. Hospitals across the United States have more Govt patients than ever before, and the country’s eruption is expected to set even more severe records. Earlier this month, Dr. Robert Redfield, director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, warned that the next few months of the epidemic would be “the most difficult in this country’s public health history.”
President Donald Trump has previously said he would implement the Defense Production Act if needed to ensure Americans get the vaccine.
“It will be very positive,” Burla said Monday. “I hope they will do it very soon, especially in some components, we run within critical distribution limits, but I think they will do it, so it will not be any problem.”
– Spencer Kimball of CNBC contributed to this report.