Biden is expected on Tuesday to direct health officials to double the purchase of Pfizer’s COVID-19 pill from 10 to 20 million treatment courses and to speed up the delivery.
As previously reported by Human Events News, the FDA granted emergency use authorization for Pfizer’s COVID-19 pill, called Paxlovid, last month.
In November, the Biden administration announced it will secure 10 million courses of the drug, contingent on the FDA’s approval, per Fox News. The administration paid $5.295 billion for the first 10 million courses.
A senior administration official told Fox News that the pills “fit into the diverse portfolio of treatments we have for folks that get COVID.”
“When it comes to COVID-19 therapeutics, we have approached it like filling a medicine cabinet - we are not relying on one type, or one brand, or one treatment,” the official said. “We ensured that we would invest in and buy a broad variety - across monoclonal antibodies, pre-exposure prevention treatments, and antiviral pills.”
Biden is expected to meet with his COVID-19 response team on Tuesday to receive an update on the status of omicron and to discuss his response.
Following the briefing, Biden is expected to announce the updates, including the purchase of the additional 10 million courses of the pill.
