"Securing COVID-19 Vaccines: UK Signs Additional Contract for 90 Million Doses with Pfizer and Two Other Pharmaceutical Companies"

[Image source=AP Yonhap News]

[Asia Economy Reporter Jeong Hyunjin] The UK government announced that it has secured 90 million doses of the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) vaccine being developed by the American pharmaceutical company Pfizer, the German pharmaceutical company BioNTech, and the French pharmaceutical company Valneva SE, Bloomberg reported on the 20th (local time).

According to the report, the UK government signed a contract on the same day to receive 30 million doses of the COVID-19 vaccine jointly developed by Pfizer and BioNTech. This contract is the first agreement between Pfizer-BioNTech and the government.

The vaccine is currently undergoing Phase 2 clinical trials, aiming for approval in early October. These pharmaceutical companies aim to produce 100 million doses within this year and 1.2 billion doses by the end of next year if the vaccine development is successful.

The UK government also announced that it has agreed in principle to receive 60 million doses of the vaccine from Valneva. If the vaccine is confirmed to be effective and safe, an additional 40 million doses will be supplied. Valneva’s vaccine is expected to enter clinical trials within this year, with the UK government covering part of the costs.

The reason the UK government is signing successive vaccine contracts is interpreted as a plan to secure as many vaccine supplies as possible in advance, given the difficulty in predicting which vaccine will be successfully developed. Previously, the UK government signed a contract to receive a total of 100 million doses if the COVID-19 vaccine being developed by the multinational pharmaceutical company AstraZeneca and the University of Oxford succeeds.

The UK also plans to receive vaccines if the vaccine entering human trials at Imperial College London is developed. For those who cannot be vaccinated, the UK has also signed contracts to secure treatments containing COVID-19 neutralizing antibodies with AstraZeneca.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.