• The Pentagon said on Monday that the U.S. Army has awarded Pfizer a contract valued at $3.5B to manufacture 500M doses of the vaccine developed by the company in partnership with BioNTech SE, New York Postreports.
• The vaccine deliveries will be earmarked for distribution around the world by the end of next year. Pfizer’s messenger-RNA-based vaccine became the first COVID-19 shot to win the FDA's emergency use authorization in December last year.
• A few days later, the U.S. government increased its order size for the vaccine by 100M doses, bringing the total number of its orders to 200M doses.
• In June, it was reported that Pfizer (PFE) agreed to supply the federal government with 500M doses of the vaccine with an option for another 200M doses.
• The company was set to make the deliveries at a not-for-profit basis, unlike the $19.50 per shot paid by the U.S. in the initial contract.