WASHINGTON — The United States government plans to buy 100-million more doses of the coronavirus vaccine made by Pfizer.
The agreement calls for at least 70-million doses to come by the end of June. The remaining 30-million will be available by the end of July.
Washington and Pfizer have been wrangling over access to manufacturing supplies. But they’ve apparently reached a deal involving the government to invoke the Defense Production Act to make components needed for the vaccine more readily available.
Pfizer’s partner in developing the vaccine, BioNTech in Germany, is also saying they are confident that the vaccine will hold up against a new variant of coronavirus going around in the United Kingdom.
Scientists are running tests now, but the vaccine has already proven effective against 20 mutant versions of the coronavirus.
The United Kingdom is under new lockdowns and travel restrictions have been imposed by other countries to and from the UK this week as news of the new variant surfaced.
