(Photo : Photo by Tomohiro Ohsumi/Getty Images)
TOKYO, JAPAN - APRIL 11: Staff members of the Tokyo metropolitan government wearing face masks hold signs as they call people to stay home in the Kabukicho entertainment area on April 11, 2020 in Tokyo, Japan. Tokyo Governor Yuriko Koike has requested that businesses including schools, athletic facilities, bars and restaurants to temporarily close or operate under reduced hours. The action follows a state of emergency that covers 7 of Japans 47 prefectures as the Covid-19 coronavirus outbreak continues to spread throughout the country.
Japan negotiated a deal to procure 120 million doses of a probable COVID-19 vaccine with German pharmaceutical group BioNTech. The initial deliveries to Japan are slated for the first half of 2021.
The negotiation's financial terms were not divulged. The agreement was in the form of a $1.95 billion contract between Pfizer, BioNTech, and the American government, according to the Mainz-based company.
The Pfizer and BioNTech SE vaccine is named BNT162 which appears to be increasingly in demand. Japan's Ministry of Health, Labor, and Welfare (MHLW) recently negotiated to procure the doses in 2021. The experimental mRNA-based potential targets SARS-CoV-2 and is subject to prescribed approval and clinical success.
Laboratories globally are tackling to discover a vaccine to curb the novel coronavirus that has a record of over 667,000 fatalities and upended millions' livelihoods, reported Kompas.
The negotiation's terms were based on the delivery's timing and volume of doses.
Over 200 potential vaccines are currently being created with about two dozen undergoing the phase of clinical trials with human participants, indicated Rappler.
Pfizer and BioNTech have deliberated to advance their clinical trials on the most promising BNT162b2 of their vaccine candidates.
The supply the said vaccines is slated prior to the rescheduled date of the Tokyo Olympics, reported MedCity News.
The declaration was made after the beginning of the late-stage clinical trial of the vaccine. The vaccine referred to collectively included four vaccine candidates.
The most sophisticated pharmaceutical markets across the globe will be monitor in Japan, North America, and Europe which are in-demand potential vaccines.
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The companies in collaboration declared on Monday that they have started a mass clinical trial with 30,000 healthy participants.
BioNTech and Pfizer anticipate to produce a maximum of 100 million doses by the conclusion of 2020, and possibly over 1.3 billion doses by the end of next year.
Last week, the target vaccine, BNT162b2, is the same vaccine that launched into a global Phase IIb/III trial. Meanwhile, the other target potential vaccine is BNT162b1.
In its run in combatting the coronavirus pandemic, Japan has escaped it relatively lightly with around 32,500 confirmed cases and over 1,000 fatalities since the detection of the first case.
However, the total number of confirmed cases has witnessed an increase since the Japanese government lifted a state of emergency two months ago.
According to Tokyo's governor on Thursday, the capital might need to undertake a new state of emergency if the number of infections continues to rise.
In late-afternoon trading, Pfizer sharers were down over 1.6% on the New York Stock Exchange on Friday. On the Nasdaq, BioNTech sharers were down around 2.5%.
According to Pfizer CEO Albert Bourla in a statement, "We are deeply honored to work with the Japanese government and to marshal our scientific and manufacturing resources toward our shared goal of bringing millions of doses of a potential Covid-19 vaccine to the Japanese people as quickly as possible. In the face of this global health crisis, Pfizer's purpose - breakthroughs that change patients' lives - has taken on an even greater urgency."
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