Coronavirus vaccine developers told House members on Tuesday that they plan to dramatically increase deliveries in the coming weeks.
Executives at Pfizer and Moderna, the only two companies that have so far received emergency vaccine clearance from the U.S. government, said they would be able to deliver more than 130 million additional combined doses by the end of March.
The companies said they no longer face a shortage of raw materials and largely solved the manufacturing challenges that limited initial production and resulted in bottlenecks as demand far outstripped supply.
Together, the two companies have contracts to supply 600 million doses, which they say are ready by the end of July. Among all the companies with which the U.S. has contracts, the Trump and Biden administrations have secured enough pre-ordered doses to vaccinate almost twice the entire U.S. population.
“Some of the companies here today are still short of the number of doses they promised to deliver initially when they testified before this subcommittee in July,” said the representative. Diana DeGette
Diana Louise DeGetteHouse Democrats criticize Texas’s “failure to prepare” for winter storms. Democrats argue that Trump will incite violence again LIVE COVERAGE: Democrats conclude case against Trump MORE (D-Colo.), Chairman of the House Energy and Commerce Subcommittee on Investigation and Supervision.
DeGette added that “many of the companies received significant federal investments to increase their manufacturing capacity in the past year, even with clinical trials in progress.”
According to a Government Accountability Office report last month, the Trump administration’s Warp Speed operation had committed approximately $ 13 billion to the development and manufacture of vaccines, including financing to increase existing capacity.
John Young, business director at Pfizer, told lawmakers that the company has shipped approximately 40 million doses to date.
But Young said the company is on track to make a total of 120 million doses available for shipment by the end of March, and another 80 million doses by the end of May.
“Because of the extreme need to vaccinate more people, we increased the production of doses,” he said, noting that the company has invested significantly in domestic factories.
The investment is necessary because the company will need to increase deliveries from approximately 4 million to 5 million weekly doses in early February to more than 13 million weekly doses by mid-March.
Johnson & Johnson, which has not yet received emergency authorization for its vaccine, said it plans to have enough doses for more than 20 million Americans by the end of March.
This vaccine, unlike Pfizer and Moderna, requires only one dose, so 20 million doses would completely vaccinate the same number of people.
Richard Nettles, vice president of medical affairs for the United States at Johnson & Johnson’s Janssen infectious disease and vaccine unit, said the company will have 4 million doses ready to ship immediately if and when the injection is authorized by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA).
An FDA advisory committee will meet on Friday to consider the company’s request, and an emergency authorization may come soon after.
Johnson & Johnson’s goals are more optimistic than the Biden government officials previously acknowledged. Earlier this month, White House COVID-19 response coordinator Jeff Zients
Morning report by Jeff ZientsThe Hill – Biden at COVID-19: Next year, Americans will be ‘better’ overnight Health care: CDC study says double masking works | House Democrats propose multi-billion dollar aid package to COVID-19 | Industry groups support Democrats’ proposed ObamaCare reforms The Hill’s Morning Report – Presented by TikTok – Day 1 goes to Dems while the Republican Party gets angry at Trump’s lawyers MORE said the United States expects to receive only “a few million” doses from Johnson & Johnson when it is released for use.
At the same time, the Biden government is also increasing its allocation to states.
White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki
Jen PsakiTanden’s path to confirmation seems increasingly unsustainable Asia-Pacific-American group asks senators to confirm Tanden Biden to order flags to half the team to score 500,000 virus deaths MORE said Tuesday that states will now receive 14.5 million doses of COVID-19 vaccines per week, an increase of about 1 million doses per week.
Psaki said Zients made the announcement in a conference call with the governors on Tuesday morning.
Still, getting vaccines is not the same as getting them administered. According to data from the Center for Disease Control and Prevention, just over 65 million doses were administered, while 82 million doses were administered.