Bottles for the Pfizer BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine are set to be ready before the opening of a mass vaccination site in Queens District, New York, on February 24, 2021.
Seth Little | Swimming pool | Reuters
Pfizer CEO Albert Bourla said Tuesday that his company has stepped up production of its two-shot coronavirus vaccine and will be able to administer a total of 300 million doses in the United States ahead of schedule.
Bourla said on Twitter that Pfizer could deliver 10% more doses to the United States in late May than it had previously agreed to produce, up to 220 million, from 200 million.
The company will be able to supply the full $ 300 million, which it had agreed to deliver to the United States in late July, two weeks earlier, Bourla said.
“In the fight against COVID-19, we are together in this,” he tweeted.
The announcement came as dozens of states temporarily stopped administering the single-dose Covid vaccine from Johnson & Johnson. The Food and Drug Administration advised them on Tuesday to do so after six U.S. women developed a rare blood clotting disorder that left one woman dead and another in critical condition.
Some states, such as New York, said they will use the Pfizer vaccine instead of the J&J shot for appointments that had already been scheduled.