The Trump administration rejected an offer from the Pfizer company to purchase additional doses of COVID-19 vaccine in the second three-month period of 2021, Pfizer Board Member Scott Gottleib said on Tuesday.
“Pfizer did offer up an additional allotment coming out of that plant, basically the second-quarter allotment, to the U.S. government multiple times and as recently as after the interim data came out.
“And we knew this vaccine looked to be effective,” Gottlieb said.
However, the Trump administration repeatedly turned down the offers to purchase more than the 100 million doses of the vaccine it had already bought, he said.
The company has since told the Trump administration that it cannot provide a substantial number of more doses of its vaccine until late June or July, because other countries have rushed to buy up most of its supply.
“Pfizer has gone ahead and entered into some agreements with other countries to sell them some of that vaccine in the second quarter of 2021,” Gottlieb said.
In July 2020, the U.S. agreed to buy from Pfizer and its German partner BioNTech for 100 million doses of their COVID-19 vaccine if it passed its safety testing, CNBC noted.
The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is scheduled to meet on Thursday to review an emergency use application from the two companies.
Also on Tuesday, the FDA published Pfizer and BioNTech’s clinical trial data, which showed no specific safety concerns.
If approved, Pfizer’s entire supply of vaccine produced in its Michigan manufacturing facility in December and the first quarter of 2021 will be used in the U.S., Gottleib said.
Agency Report
