HHS, DoD Buy 100M More Doses of Moderna, Pfizer COVID-19 Vaccines

HHS and the Department of Defense (DoD) recently purchased an additional 100 million doses of COVID-19 vaccines from both Pfizer and Moderna to boost vaccine supply in the US.

The recent order brings the vaccines purchased by the US government from these two companies to a total 600 million doses, which is enough to vaccinate 300 million people, HHS said.

Both Pfizer and Moderna will deliver 300 million doses in regular increments through the end of this year.  

“As the President directed, we are expanding our supply of COVID vaccines to protect people as quickly as possible,” Acting HHS Secretary, Norris Cochran, said in the announcement.

“These purchases will allow us to accelerate our vaccination efforts to get shots into the arms of the American people. While we rapidly ramp up the pace of vaccinations, I encourage everyone to take actions now to protect themselves and their families: wear a mask, wash your hands often, and practice physical distancing,” Cochran continued.

Currently, both vaccines are available at no cost, HHS said. And vaccine administration costs for private-sector administration partners are being covered by healthcare payers and an HHS program to cover costs for the uninsured.

In August, HHS and the DoD announced an agreement with Moderna to manufacture and deliver 100 million doses of its vaccine candidate, mRNA-1273. The federal government owns the doses and can acquire additional 400 million doses of the vaccine.

In November, mRNA-1273 elicited a 94 percent vaccine efficacy in 30,000 adults who were not infected with COVID-19 in the company’s Phase 3 clinical trial.

Due to the positive trial results, the Trump Administration increased its order an additional 100 million at the end of December. And FDA issued an emergency use authorization (EUA) for the vaccine just days later, allowing for national distribution.

Stéphane Bancel, chief executive officer of Moderna, said in a press release following the government’s purchase of the additional doses that the move is “encouraging and humbling,” as over 22 million Americans have already been protected with the company’s vaccine thus far.

And at the end of July, HHS and the DoD made an agreement with Pfizer for a large-scale production and nationwide delivery of 100 million doses of its vaccine candidate, BNT162b2.

In November, the company announced that its Phase 3 clinical trial for BNT162b2 elicited a 94 percent vaccine efficacy in 43,000 adult volunteers who did not have the coronavirus.

Under the US government’s purchase of the additional doses, the Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority (BARDA) collaborated with the DOD joint program executive office for chemical, biological, radiological, and nuclear defense to provide nearly $2 billion, bringing the total purchase from Pfizer to approximately $6 billion.

“We support the new administration's plan to vaccinate as many people as quickly as possible because there is an urgent need to help protect people from this virus, here in the U.S. and across the globe,” Albert Bourla, chairman and chief executive officer at Pfizer, said in a press release following the additional purchase of the vaccine.

"We are pleased to work with the administration to provide these additional vaccines, so that more Americans receive their first and second doses as soon as possible,” Bourla continued.

HHS and DOD noted that they have made an agreement with four other companies to speed-up development and production of vaccines that use different vaccine platform technologies and are manufacturing COVID-19 vaccine doses while clinical trials are underway.

If any of these other vaccine candidates are authorized by FDA for emergency use, HHS and DOD will negotiate agreements to purchase additional vaccine doses to meet the high demand in the US.