The Biden administration signed a new agreement with Pfizer and partner BioNTech to purchase 105 million doses of their COVID-19 vaccine for a fall vaccination campaign.
The agreement also includes an option to purchase an additional 195 million doses, giving the deal a total value of $3.2 billion, the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) said in a statement.
Doses for adults and children, and supplies of an “Omicron-adapted” vaccine that is currently pending approval from the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), will be provided as part of the contract. The supplies are expected to be delivered by the early fall, according to HHS.
“We look forward to taking delivery of these new variant-specific vaccines and working with state and local health departments, pharmacies, health care providers, federally qualified health centers, and other partners to make them available in communities around the country this fall,” said HHS Assistant Secretary for Preparedness and Response Dawn O’Connell.
“Over the past 18 months, we have procured and delivered more than 750 million doses of COVID-19 vaccine nationwide, contributing to two-thirds of American adults being fully vaccinated,” O’Connell added.
Pharmaceutical firms have been developing vaccines explicitly designed for the Omicron variant, which the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) says is the most prevalent strain in the United States.
“This agreement will provide additional doses for U.S. residents and help cope with the next COVID-19 wave. Pending regulatory authorization, it will also include an Omicron-adapted vaccine, which we believe is important to address the rapidly spreading Omicron variant,” Sean Marett, chief business and chief commercial officer of BioNTech, said in a statement.
The U.S. government will spend more than $30 per dose on average under the new deal, substantially higher than the $19.50 it spent per dose in its initial Pfizer contract. Before the latest agreement, Pfizer said in May that it projected to make about $32 billion in COVID-19 vaccine sales for 2022.
The new contract announcement comes after weeks of battles between the Biden administration and Congress over future measures to address COVID-19.
Earlier this year, the Biden administration requested $22.5 billion in funding to pay for vaccines, testing, and treatments as part of the administration’s COVID-19 response. Lawmakers agreed on a scaled-back $10 billion package but left Washington for the Easter recess without passing that bill.
The bill’s passage was stalled by some Senators who did not believe the money was needed and that continued spending on COVID-19 measures was causing harm to the economy.
“There are seemingly no limits to the billions and trillions of dollars that Democrats want to spend,” Senator Ted Cruz (R-Texas) told POLITICO in April after the bill’s failure. “With the inflation raging across the country, they continue pouring gasoline on the fire.”
Because Congress failed to pass the compromised package, the Biden administration reallocated $10 billion from ongoing COVID-19 response efforts. Part of those reallocated funds are being used to pay for this new vaccine purchase.
Senator Mitt Romney of Utah criticized the White House earlier this month, saying they were dishonest about the funding.
“For the Administration to say they could not purchase these things and then, after several months, divert some funds and then purchase them is unacceptable, and makes our ability to work together and have confidence in what we’re being told very much shaken to the core,” Romney said.
The Pfizer deal announcement comes as the CDC recently recommended everyone older than six months old get the COVID-19 vaccine, expanding eligibility to nearly 20 million additional children in the United States.