Pfizer Already Produced 20Mln Doses of COVID-19 Vaccine, Expects 50Mln by Year's End - CEO

MOSCOW (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 20th November, 2020) Pharmaceutical giant Pfizer has already produced 20 million doses of its COVID-19 vaccine and expects to have 50 million ready to be shipped by the end of year, according to CEO Albert Bourla.

Speaking to Sky news on Thursday, Bourla said that production of the vaccine had been ongoing from when efficacy trials placed its effectiveness at over 90 percent.

"Already we are making it, I have to tell you, we have already produced more than 20 million doses and we continue, as we speak, to produce more and more. This is why we said that by the end of the year... we expect to have 50 million doses," Bourla said, adding that Pfizer expects to produce around 1.3 billion doses over the next year.

He went on to state that the company was already applying with all health authorities around the world for authorization to distribute the vaccine and "to start shipping within a couple of hours after we receive the green light.

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In response to how Pfizer will ensure that the vaccine does not end up being hoarded by wealthy nations that can pay for it, Bourla said that Pfizer was developing a pricing tier system by which poorer nations can acquire the vaccine from Pfizer on a not-for-profit basis.

Earlier in the month, Pfizer announced that the vaccine against COVID-19 it had developed in tandem with German laboratory BioNTech had an effectiveness rate of more than 90 percent. That figure was later bumped up to 95 percent in the final trial analysis. The vaccine requires storage temperatures of about 120 degrees Fahrenheit below zero, which poses a serious challenge to distribution, especially among less-developed nations without the cold chain infrastructure.