With the new order, the U.S. has committed to purchase 20 million courses total from Pfizer.
Summary
- President Joe Biden on Tuesday said another batch of Pfizer’s Covid-19 treatment pills is shipping this week as the U.S. government doubles its order of the medication amid an unprecedented wave of infections driven by the highly contagious omicron variant.
- Biden on Tuesday directed the government to buy an additional 10 million courses of Pfizer’s oral antiviral treatment, Paxlovid.
- With the new order, the U.S. has committed to purchase at least 20 million courses from Pfizer.
- Pfizer, in a statement announcing the new U.S. order Tuesday, said the remaining 10 million courses will be shipped by the end of September.
- A Pfizer employee checks the boxes containing Paxlovid, COVID-19 treatment pills, at a distribution facility in Memphis, Tennessee, in this undated handout picture.