$1.95B deal for vaccine

Pfizer and a German firm, BioNTech, announce a $1.95 billion deal with the U.S. government for prepurchase of 100 million doses of a COVID-19 vaccine candidate the two companies are developing jointly. The U.S. can acquire up to 500 million additional doses, the announcement stated.

The U.S. government has placed an initial order for 100 million doses of a vaccine candidate being developed by Pfizer and a German firm, BioNTech, for $1.95 billion, the companies announced Wednesday.

The U.S. can acquire up to 500 million additional doses, the statement said.

The U.S. has been averaging more than 60,000 new cases daily for multiple weeks, and some states are seeing hospitalization rates soar. A USA TODAY analysis of Johns Hopkins data through late Tuesday shows 10 states set seven-day records for new cases while five states had a record number of deaths over the period.

The U.S. has more than 3.9 million cases and more than 142,000 deaths, according to Johns Hopkins University.

Once the companies obtain approval or emergency use authorization from U.S. Food and Drug Administration, Americans will receive the vaccine for free, the companies said. If the ongoing studies are successful, Pfizer and BioNTech expect to be ready to seek approval as early as October.

The companies expect to manufacture globally up to 100 million doses by the end of 2020 and potentially more than 1.3 billion doses by the end of 2021.