Trump applauds government contract with Pfizer and BioNTech, says he thinks vaccine is ‘a winner’

President Donald Trump called the federal government’s $1.95 billion deal with Pfizer and biotech firm BioNTech “a historic agreement” that will help the country distribute a coronavirus vaccine in record-breaking time. 

“Hopefully the approval process will go very quickly, and we think we have a winner there. We also think we have other companies right behind that are doing very well on the vaccines, long ahead of schedule,” Trump told reporters at the White House on Wednesday. 

Germany-based BioNTech and Pfizer, which are jointly developing four potential vaccines, announced the deal earlier in the day that will give the U.S. 100 million doses of their potential vaccine if it proves safe and effective. Under the agreement, the U.S. can buy 500 million additional doses, the Department of Health and Human Services said.

The deal was the largest deal so far to secure the nation’s supply of coronavirus vaccine doses.

“This is another crucial step and our effort to develop, manufacture and distribute a vaccine in record-breaking time, really a very small fraction of the time based on previous schedules,” Trump said. 

This is a developing story. Please check back later for updates.