US orders 300 million doses of potential COVID19 vaccine
BENGALURU/LONDON - The United States has secured almost a 3rd of AstraZeneca's 1 billion possible COVID-19 vaccine doses by pledging up to $1.2 billion, as the world's biggest powers scramble for medicinal supplies to get their economies back to work.
"This contract with AstraZeneca is a major milestone in Operation Warp Speed’s work toward a safe, effective, widely available vaccine by 2021," US Health Secretary Alex Azar said. AstraZeneca, based in Cambridge, England, said it had concluded agreements for at least 400 million doses of the vaccine and secured manufacturing capacity for 1 billion doses, with first deliveries due to begin in September.With leaders across the world surveying some of the worst economic destruction since at least World War II, many are scrambling for a vaccine.
"We would like to thank the US and UK governments for their substantial support to accelerate the development and production of the vaccine," AstraZeneca Chief Executive Officer Pascal Soriot said. There are currently no approved treatments or vaccines for COVID-19 being tested by pharmaceutical giants across the world, with governments, drugmakers and researchers working on around 100 programmes and experts predicting a safe and effective means of preventing the disease could take 12 to 18 months to develop.
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