Pfizer Inc. is expected to provide around 10 million courses of the company’s highly effective COVID-19 antiviral treatment Paxlovid to low-income and middle-income countries during 2022, according to an official with the Global Fund, a healthcare NGO working to buy the pills from the drugmaker.
Aside from vaccines, the advent of several effective COVID-19 antiviral therapies, including Pfizer’s Paxlovid, provides hope for ending the pandemic. Details about the U.S. government’s contract with Pfizer for 10 million doses of Paxlovid are emerging, with some unusual elements.
The U.S. Defense Department said it awarded on January 7 a contract to Revival Health Inc. for 13.3 million COVID-19 at-home test kits as part of President Joe Biden’s plan to make available 500 million test kits.
The U.S. government canceled a contract with Maryland-based Emergent BioSolutions, which ruined about 15 million doses of the Johnson & Johnson vaccine earlier in the year.
CureVac said on Sept. 14 the German biotech firm cancelled contract manufacturing deals for the company’s experimental Covid-19 vaccine with two prospective partners, after rivals with approved shots boosted production.
A lawyer for the European Union accused AstraZeneca on May 26 of failing to respect the company’s contract with the 27-nation bloc for the supply of Covid-19 vaccines and asked a Belgian court to impose a large fine on the Anglo-Swedish drug firm.
Moderna Inc. said on April 28 the U.S. government had agreed to increase the contract for the company’s Covid-19 vaccine by $236 million to roughly $1.25 billion, to include additional costs related to the shot’s studies.
LightDeck Diagnostics was awarded a $5.65 million contract from the Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority (BARDA), part of the Office of the Assistant Secretary for Preparedness and Response at the US Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), to develop an rapid antigen test to detect SARS-CoV-2.
The United States awarded a $265 million contract to a Texas facility of Japan’s Fujifilm Holdings Corp to step up production of a coronavirus vaccine candidate, President Donald Trump said.
Regeneron Pharmaceuticals received a $450 million contract to manufacture and supply a two-antibody cocktail for the treatment and prevention of COVID-19 as part of Operation Warp Speed from the Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority (BARDA).