COVAX Purchases 40M Doses of Pfizer, BioNTech’s COVID-19 Vaccine

Pfizer and BioNTech recently announced an advanced purchase agreement with COVAX for up to 40 million doses of its mRNA COVID-19 vaccine, BNT162b2.

The first doses of the vaccine are expected to be delivered throughout this year, subject to supply agreements under the COVAX Facility Structure.

COVAX includes an Advanced Market Commitment (AMC) financial mechanism that aims to ensure that 92 low- and lower-middle-income countries can access COVID-19 vaccines at the same time as higher-income countries.

Under the agreement, Pfizer and BioNTech will provide BNT162b2 to the COVAX Advanced Market Commitment 92 countries at a not-for-profit price. 

"We share the mission of COVAX and are proud to work together so that developing countries have the same access as the rest of the world, which will bring us another step closer to ending this global pandemic and proving that Science Will Win for everyone, everywhere,” Albert Bourla, Pfizer chairman and CEO, said in the announcement.

COVAX is the vaccine pillar of the Access to COVID-19 Tools (ACT) Accelerator coordinated by the Global Alliance for Vaccines and Immunization (GAVI), the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations (CEPI), and the World Health Organization (WHO). 

At the end of September, 64 higher-income economies joined the COVAX Facility, including the European Commission, which will acquire vaccine doses on behalf of 27 European members plus Norway and Iceland. 

A total of 156 economies, regardless of economic class and representing about 64 percent of the global population, were committed to or eligible for the COVAX Facility. The US was not on the list of confirmed or intended to confirm participants. 

But just days after President Joe Biden was elected into office, NIAID Director Anthony Fauci, MD, said in a speech that the US will join COVAX to advance efforts for COVID-19 vaccines, therapeutics, diagnostic distribution, access to care, and research and development. 

Biden’s decision to join COVAX will allow the US to increase its vaccine supply substantially.

In December, COVAX stated that it will secure access to 2 billion doses of safe and effective vaccines that are suitable for all patients. Those doses will be widely available by the end of 2021. 

These vaccine doses include 500 million doses of Johnson & Johnson’s vaccine candidate, up to 900 million doses or more of either the AstraZeneca-Oxford or Novavax candidates, and 200 million doses of the Sanofi-GSK vaccine candidate. 

Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, MD, director general of the WHO explained in the recent announcement that the agreement between Pfizer and BioNTech will “enable COVAX to save lives, stabilize health systems, and drive the global economic recovery.” 

And Seth Berkley, MD, CEO of GAVI, the Vaccine Alliance, which leads COVAX procurement and delivery, stated that the agreement marks another milestone for COVAX because the Facility now expects the first deliveries of life-saving COVID-19 vaccines in Q1. 

“This is not just significant for COVAX, it is a major step forward for equitable access to vaccines, and an essential part of the global effort to beat this pandemic. We will only be safe anywhere if we are safe everywhere,” Berkley said. 

Pfizer and BioNTech noted that they will also partner with other global health stakeholders to provide resources to strengthen healthcare systems where more support may be needed to deploy COVID-19 vaccines.

Although BNT162b2 has not been approved or licensed by FDA, it was granted emergency use authorization in mid-December due to available evidence proving that the candidate is effective in preventing COVID-19.

The companies most recently announced that BNT162b2 elicited antibodies that neutralize the SARS-CoV-2 UK strain, known as B.1.1.7 lineage. 

The neutralization of the pseudovirus bearing the UK strain spike by BNT162b2 means that COVID-19 caused by the UK virus variant can also be prevented by immunization with BNT162b2.