(Washington) The United States signed an agreement of nearly $ 2 billion to secure 95 millions doses of a possible vaccine against the novel coronavirus, a move that is part of their strategy of massive investments to immunize Americans early next year.
Issam AHMED and Lucie AUBOURG
France Media Agency
The US government will pay $ 1, 95 billion dollars to get 100 million doses of a vaccine developed by the German-American alliance Biontech / Pfizer, the two laboratories announced on Wednesday.
"The American government [...] could acquire up to 500 million additional doses", specified the two companies in a communicated.
This is the largest contract signed within the framework of Operation Warp Speed ("Beyond the Speed of Light") set up by Donald Trump's government to accelerate the developing a vaccine, funding clinical trials and building manufacturing sites.
The German biotech Biontech and the American laboratory Pfizer have been developing a vaccine project for several months, which is now entering a decisive phase of large-scale clinical trials, after initial encouraging results.
If the boss of the American Institutes of Health said he agreed with the idea that a vaccine against COVID - 12 was to be a global "public good", US President Donald Trump clearly shows the priority: to vaccinate his compatriots as quickly as possible.
For this, the US government is betting on several horses at once, since it is impossible to know at this stage which of the dozens of experimental vaccines under development will succeed. Since February, he has invested billions of dollars in several programs, including those of Johnson & Johnson, Moderna, or AstraZeneca / Oxford.
The Trump administration has set a target of producing 300 million doses by January - for 300 millions of Americans.
"We are building a vaccine portfolio to increase the chances for Americans to have at least one safe and effective vaccine by the end of the year," commented US Secretary of Health Alex. Azar.
Encouraging first results 2021
The goal of the Biontech / Pfizer alliance is to "manufacture 45 millions of doses before the end of the year 2020 ", and" potentially more than 1.3 billion doses by the end of 2021 ", said the two laboratories on Wednesday.
Washington should receive the first doses as soon as "Pfizer has successfully manufactured (the vaccine) and obtained approval" from US health authorities.
In early July, the two companies announced positive preliminary results, after testing their vaccine on 45 participants. According to them, it "is able to generate a neutralizing antibody response in humans [...] at relatively low doses".
But two doses will be needed to immunize a person, as a booster must be given seven days after the first injection, a Biontech spokeswoman told AFP on Wednesday.
The technology of this vaccine is based on messenger RNA, a genetic code that is inserted into human cells to make them make antibodies specific to the coronavirus.
From now on, a phase of large-scale clinical tests must begin, which should take place in Brazil and Argentina.
"We are also in advanced discussions with many other governments", also indicated in a press release Ugur Sahin, president of Biontech.
On Tuesday, the British government announced an agreement to purchase 29 million doses from the German-American alliance.
Billions of subsidies
Unlike Europe and other countries, the United States goes it alone and does not participate in international fundraising.
They announced in mid-May a grant of $ 1.2 billion to the British laboratory AstraZeneca, which is developing a vaccine with the University of Oxford. The condition: a transfer of technology to the United States and the delivery of 300 million doses.
Earlier this month, a check for $ 1.6 billion was signed to the American biotech Novavax, guaranteeing the United States the priority of 100 millions of first doses.
The United States has also invested about half a billion dollars in one of the most advanced experimental vaccines in the world, that of the American biotech company Moderna, and another half a billion in that of Johnson & Johnson.
The French laboratory Sanofi also received a small contract in February (29 millions) but we do not know if it was retained in the "Warp Speed" program.