COVAX announces new agreements, plans for first deliveries

Coming in the face of allegations that the richer countries of the world are monopolizing supplies of COVID-19 vaccines, COVAX, the global initiative to ensure rapid and equitable access to vaccines for the novel coronavirus for all countries, regardless of income levels, has announced new supply contracts.

On Friday, COVAX said it has signed an advance purchase agreement with Pfizer (NYSE: PFE) for up to 40 million doses of the Pfizer-BioNTech (Nasdaq: BNTX) vaccine candidate BNT162b2, which has already received World Health Organization (WHO) emergency use listing. Rollout will commence with the successful negotiation and execution of supply agreements.

For the COVAX Advanced Market Commitment 92 countries, Pfizer and BioNTech have stated that they will provide the vaccine to COVAX at a not-for-profit price.