Working To Make COVID-19 Vaccines Accessible to Everyone, Everywhere
Our commitment to equitable COVID-19 vaccine access
From the outset of the pandemic, Pfizer has worked as fast as science would allow to develop and distribute safe and effective vaccines. Equity has been at the heart of our decision-making, shaping our approach to the development, manufacturing, and supply of our breakthrough vaccines. Since December 2020, nearly 4.6 billion Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccines have been shipped to 181 countries, of which more than 1.8 billion have gone to low- and middle-income countries.
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Accelerating Access for Low & Middle Income Countries
In order to accelerate access for vulnerable populations, Pfizer has partnered with governments and health agencies all around the world to work toward fair and equitable access to COVID-19 vaccines, providing our expertise and resources for novel approaches that can help to strengthen infrastructure where greater support may be needed. With the launch of the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 Vaccine, we pledged to supply 2 billion doses to low- and middle-income countries. Since December 2020, we have shipped more than 1.8B of these doses, and we will continue to work to supply even more to meet demand.
Pfizer-BioNTech doses reach countries through a number of supply pathways, including direct supply agreements with country governments, agreements with supranational organizations like the COVAX facility, government donation programs and humanitarian donation.
Pfizer and COVAX
Pfizer is a proud partner to the COVAX Facility, an international initiative led by the World Health Organization (WHO), Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance and Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations (CEPI) focused on equitable access to COVID-19 vaccines around the world. Pfizer was the top supplier to COVAX in 2022, contributing around 30% of total COVAX vaccines supply—or nearly 600 million doses. A substantial contribution to our partnership with COVAX is the agreement that Pfizer and BioNTech reached with the U.S. Government to provide doses at the not-for-profit price, which the U.S. Government, in turn, donates to Africa and the 92 COVAX Advanced Market Commitment (AMC) low- and lower-middle-income countries. Since December 2020, more than 500 million doses have been shipped.
Pfizer, BioNTech, the European Commission, and COVAX also have established a framework that enables EC member states to donate doses from its allocation to low- and lower-middle-income countries in need through COVAX with France acting as the coordinating member state for donations. Since December 2020, more than 84 million doses have been donated by EU nations.
Strengthening healthcare systems
Equitable access requires more than just the delivery of vaccine doses. Our commitment extends to the use of our resources to address urgent needs and make sure countries are ready to receive and distribute the vaccine to people in need.
Pfizer’s partnerships are wide-ranging: from our COVAX collaboration on supply chain capability analysis to freezer donation to support cold chain capacity through our UPS partnership.
Pfizer has also drawn on its long-term relationship with Zipline, using innovative solutions such as drone-assisted deliveries to ensure vaccines reach hard-to-reach areas.
The Pfizer Foundation has provided $30 million in grants to help meet the needs of front-line healthcare workers during the pandemic - and we are continuing to work with NGOs, UN agencies and governments to explore the need for a targeted vaccine donation program for refugees and vulnerable populations.
- How many Pfizer vaccines have been shipped so far?
Since December 2020, nearly 4.6 billion Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccines have been shipped to 181 countries.
- How many of Pfizer’s doses are going to Low- and Middle-Income Countries?
We have committed to supplying 2 billion doses of our vaccine to low- and middle-income countries. Since December 2020, we have shipped more than 1.8B of these doses, and we will continue to work to supply doses in alignment with demand.
- How have you priced your vaccine?
In all agreements, we are deploying a pricing structure for high-, middle-, and low/lower-middle-income countries. High- and middle-income countries will pay more than low-income countries, but at a value that is significantly discounted from our normal benchmarks, during the pandemic. Low- and lower middle-income countries will pay a not-for-profit price.
Pfizer did not receive any public funding for the development of the COVID-19 vaccine. Any government funding received by our partner, BioNTech, was not a factor in setting Pfizer’s access strategies for the vaccine.
- How are you addressing challenges with ultra-cold chain handling requirements in low-income countries?
While developing an mRNA-based vaccine, we immediately recognized that the ultra-cold chain requirements could present infrastructure challenges for some countries, which is why we began working with our distribution partners, simultaneous to development, to design a thermal shipping solution to mitigate the barriers that might exist for countries to effectively administer the vaccine.
Since first submitting data for emergency use authorization in November 2020, Pfizer has been committed to testing the safety of new storage options at lower temperatures and for longer time periods. Following an initial recommendation to store our vaccine in ultra-cold chain conditions for a maximum of 30 days, followed by 5 days at refrigerator temperatures, we now have data to show that the vaccines can safely be stored at a higher temperature of -25°C to -15°C for two weeks, followed by one month at 2-8°C - reducing the impact for populations in harder to reach areas or with limited cold chain capacity.
- How did you ensure the vaccine was going to be suitable for use in diverse populations around the world?
We continue to prioritize diversity in clinical development and are designing our trials with that in mind, to ensure they are inclusive of populations that are more vulnerable or where burden of disease has been higher.
Our landmark Phase 3 clinical trial enrolled 46,331 participants at 153 sites in Brazil, Argentina, Germany, Turkey, South Africa and the United States. Approximately 42% of global participants and 30% of U.S. participants in the Phase 3 study have racially and ethnically diverse backgrounds.
- What other initiatives or partnerships are you pursuing to support equitable access?
In addition to government bilateral agreements and COVAX, Pfizer is in ongoing discussions with several global health organizations to work toward fair and equitable access to safe and effective COVID-19 vaccines. We are also working with a number of stakeholders to provide our expertise and resources for novel approaches to supply chain in order to meet the global demand and to help strengthen healthcare systems where greater support may be needed.
Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 Vaccine has not been approved or licensed by FDA, but has been authorized for emergency use by FDA, under an EUA to prevent Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) for use in individuals aged 6 months through 11 years of age. 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.