BENGALURU: Pfizer Inc. and German biotech firm BioNTech SE will get $1.95 billion from the US government to produce and deliver 100 million doses of their COVID-19 vaccine candidate.
The agreement allows the US government to acquire an additional 500 million doses, the Department of Health and Human Services and the Department of Defense said.
Pfizer will deliver the doses if the product receives Emergency Use Authorization or licensure from the US Food and Drug Administration, after completing demonstration of safety and efficacy in a large Phase 3 clinical trial.
A vaccine is seen as crucial to tackle the pandemic and governments across the globe have signed deals with drugmakers to secure dosages of their vaccine candidates.
Pfizer and BioNTech are among a handful of companies that are racing to develop a safe and effective vaccine for COVID-19, caused by the new coronavirus. Their vaccine candidate has shown promise in early-stage small studies in humans.
Pfizer’s shares rose 4%, while BioNTech’s US-listed shares were up about 6% before the bell.
US to pay Pfizer $1.95 bn to produce millions of doses of COVID-19 vaccine
https://arab.news/bxqmz
US to pay Pfizer $1.95 bn to produce millions of doses of COVID-19 vaccine
- Pfizer and BioNTech are among a handful of companies that are racing to develop a vaccine for COVID-19
- Their vaccine candidate has shown promise in early-stage small studies in humans
Two family members of Mexico’s education secretary killed in shooting
MEXICO CITY: Authorities in the western Mexican state of Colima said they killed three people suspected in the shooting deaths of two family members of Mexico’s secretary of education on Saturday.
Colima, located on Mexico’s Pacific coast, is one of the country’s most violent states. It recorded the highest homicide rate in Mexico in 2023 and 2024, according to the US State Department.
The local prosecutor’s office said officers killed three suspects in the 4:30 am (1030 GMT) shooting of two women, whom Mexico’s Secretary of Public Education Mario Delgado later identified as his aunt and cousin.
They did not identify a motive in the shooting or say whether they were searching for other suspects.
“Deep shock, outrage, and sorrow over the events that occurred this morning in Colima, where my aunt Eugenia Delgado and my cousin Sheila were brutally murdered in their home,” Delgado wrote on X on Saturday.
Officials tracked the suspects’ vehicle to a Colima home on Saturday afternoon and killed three people in a gunfight, according to the prosecutor’s office.
Investigators found weapons and clothing in the suspects’ home linked to the double shooting.
Delgado was appointed education secretary by President Claudia Sheinbaum in 2024. He previously served as national president of the ruling Morena party.
