The U.S. will pay Pfizer Inc. $5.3 billion for an order of 10 million courses of its experimental Covid-19 pill beginning later this year.
The purchase is contingent on U.S. clearance of the Covid oral antiviral, which Pfizer has applied for, according to a statement from the company Thursday. Bloomberg News reported the order earlier, citing people familiar with the situation, without the financial details.
Pfizer has become one of the companies most involved in the response to the pandemic, with its Covid pill and messenger RNA vaccine developed with Germany’s BioNTech SE. The U.S. said Wednesday that it would offer funds to companies including Pfizer to expand mRNA vaccine production.
Pfizer has said it will invest as much as $1 billion to manufacture and distribute the pill.
