In the fight against COVID-19, delivering an authorized vaccine and ensuring rapid, and equitable, access and uptake are critical to help address the global health crisis

For most of 2020, COVID-19 dramatically impacted people’s lives worldwide. Pfizer began taking steps at the start of the pandemic to follow its purpose - Breakthroughs that change patients’ lives - while harnessing the full breadth of resources to address the crisis. As a result, Pfizer and German biotechnology company BioNTech SE announced in March their collaboration to jointly develop a COVID-19 vaccine using BioNTech’s messenger RNA (mRNA) vaccine program. In parallel to the research and development process, Pfizer also made significant self-funded investment at-risk to scale up its manufacturing capacity and distribution infrastructure. The goal was to bring a potential vaccine, subject to regulatory authorization, to the world faster than Pfizer has ever done before but with the same rigor and commitment to quality and safety.

Our objective was to ensure rapid uptake and equitable and affordable access for people who will need a vaccine, by contracting directly with governments for advance purchases. The extraordinary circumstances of the COVID-19 pandemic emphasize the need for procurement pathways that support rapid access, implementation and uptake. In a bold move, Pfizer and BioNTech developed a pricing model for the pandemic and worked closely with governments around the world to advance supply agreements. Our pandemic tiering pricing approach, with a not-for-profit price for Lower Income Countries / Lower-Middle Income Countries, prioritizes widespread access and enables a significant potential for cost savings to the health care system. In 2020, Pfizer and BioNTech finalized more than 25 agreements with individual governments or above market-governmental bodies around the world to supply their COVID-19 vaccine. By the end of 2020, the companies have produced approximately 50 million doses globally in markets where the vaccine became authorized. The companies aimed to manufacture at least two billion doses globally in total by the end of 2021 and are proud to be able to supply their vaccine to countries all over the world.¹

Pfizer believes that vaccine access is a collective responsibility that demands highly coordinated and collaborative action by public and private stakeholders to help end the COVID-19 pandemic. The companies are committed to using their vaccine to help meet the current global public health need and will continue to work closely with international initiatives, governments and other vaccine manufacturers.

​​​​​The Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine has not been approved or licensed by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA), but has been authorized for emergency use by FDA under an Emergency Use Authorization (EUA) to prevent Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) for use in individuals 16 years of age and older. The emergency use of this product is only authorized for the duration of the declaration that circumstances exist justifying the authorization of emergency use of the medical product under Section 564(b)(1) of the FD&C Act unless the declaration is terminated or authorization revoked sooner. Please see EUA Fact Sheet at www.cvdvaccine.com. ​​​​​​​