US Government May Find It Hard To Get More Doses Of Pfizer’s COVID-19 Vaccine

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A vial of the COVID-19 vaccine developed by Pfizer and BioNTech that was used at the Royal Victoria Hospital in Belfast, U.K., on Tuesday.

Liam McBurney/Bloomberg via Getty Images

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Liam McBurney/Bloomberg via Getty Images

Shots — Health News
Pfizer’s Coronavirus Vaccine Supply Contract Excludes Many Taxpayer Protections

It’s not unusual for a company under contract with the government to suggest a modification, such as more doses in the first allotment, said Franklin Turner, a partner at McCarter & English who specializes in government contracting. But there can be any number of reasons the government might decline.

«If I had a dime for every time the government took a step or a position that seems counterintuitive and quite frankly, mind-boggling, I’d be a very rich human being at this point in my life, Franklin said.

Pfizer’s vaccine could be given the green light this week. A panel of outside experts is set to convene on Thursday and advise the FDA on whether to authorize the vaccine for emergency use in the pandemic.

It’s possible the government could have gotten better follow-on delivery contract terms to begin with, said James Love, director of Knowledge Ecology International. Though he noted that the intellectual property rights in the contract aren’t particularly favorable to the federal government either, as NPR has reported. At some point, not placing orders when the whole world is placing orders, was a mistake, Love said.

If the U.S. did miss out on more doses because it declined them, it would be «a spectacular failure, said Rena Conti, a health economist at Boston University.

«Contracts are forward-looking, that means we could have (and did) sign contracts with other manufacturers that reserve future capacity when it became available, she said. «We should have [been] including language in every contract reserving the rights to more quantity in advance at a given price.

Although the Pfizer contract includes the option to buy an additional 500 million doses of its vaccine, that transaction would require a separate agreement, and the price would be subject to change, the contract says.

«Having more quantity reserved is smart economics given the uncertainty entailed in which vaccine comes to market in a given time period, and which vaccine will be most safe, [effective] and able to manufacture at scale, Conti said. «There is no downside cost or risk to having these forward contracts and there is plenty to gain for the American public.

You can contact NPR pharmaceuticals correspondent Sydney Lupkin at .