The U.S. will buy 500 million more doses of Pfizer's COVID-19 vaccine to donate to lower income countries, the drugmaker said Sept. 22.
For this deal, Pfizer is selling its vaccine at a not-for-profit price. The drugmaker plans to produce the doses at its manufacturing sites in Kalamazoo, Mich., Andover, Mass., Chesterfield, Mo., and McPherson, Kan.
The U.S. will donate the doses to the 55 member states of the African Union and 92 low- and lower-middle-income countries as defined by Covax, the World Health Organization-backed global vaccine distribution campaign.
The announcement brings the total number of COVID-19 vaccine doses the U.S. plans to donate to other countries to 1.1 billion. Nearly 160 million doses have already been shipped, and 200 million doses are expected to ship by the end of 2021, an anonymous White House official told NBC News.