Covid-19 roundup: Pfiz­er lands mas­sive $5B+ deal with US for po­ten­tial pill; Boost­ers for all adults are in­com­ing

Pfiz­er’s pill to treat Covid-19 is out­pac­ing its top ri­val from Mer­ck not on­ly in terms of ef­fi­ca­cy da­ta but now in the size of its US gov­ern­ment con­tract, too.

The US on Thurs­day an­nounced it will pay $5.29 bil­lion for 10 mil­lion cours­es of Pfiz­er’s po­ten­tial treat­ment, which is the largest sin­gle pro­cure­ment of any ther­a­peu­tic or vac­cine since the pan­dem­ic be­gan. And at $529 per course for the Pfiz­er pill, that’s sig­nif­i­cant­ly cheap­er than the $2.2 bil­lion the US paid for just 3 mil­lion cours­es of Mer­ck’s treat­ment, which adds up to about $730 per course.

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