Pfizer's Coronavirus Vaccine Supply Contract Excludes Many Taxpayer Protections

When the Department of Health and Human Services released Pfizer's $1.95 billion coronavirus vaccine contract with Operation Warp Speed last Wednesday, the agreement revealed that the Trump administration didn't include government rights to intellectual property typically found in federal contracts.

The drugmaker has downplayed its involvement in Operation Warp Speed, the Trump administration's more than $10 billion program to make a coronavirus vaccine available in record time. Although Pfizer didn't receive government funding this spring toward research and development of the vaccine, it nevertheless received one of the largest Operation Warp Speed supply contracts to date on July 21.

Pfizer is working on the vaccine with BioNTech, a German company. They announced results of final efficacy analysis last Wednesday, revealing that the vaccine is 95% effective. The company announced that it submitted its request for emergency use authorization on Friday.

That nearly $2 billion contract will pay for 100 million doses of the Pfizer vaccine at a price of $19.50 per dose if the vaccine is OK'd by the Food and Drug Administration. The government also has the option to buy up to 500 million more doses. The other Operation Warp Speed agreements pay for vaccines regardless of FDA approval or authorization.