By Michael Erman
NEW YORK (Reuters) – Pfizer Inc and BioNTech SE will exceed their original global target for COVID-19 vaccines by as much as 20% this year, producing 2.3 billion to 2.4 billion doses, Pfizer Chief Executive Albert Bourla said on Thursday.
“We will exceed clearly, this year, the 2 billion doses,” Bourla said in an interview.
By the fourth quarter, the companies will be at a 3 billion dose a year run rate, and should be able to produce that much next year, he added.
Bourla said the company expects to be able to meet its commitment of supplying 120 million doses of its vaccine to the U.S. government by the end of March. That would require them to deliver another 60 million doses over the next three weeks.
“Those have already been manufactured” and are currently being tested for quality, he said.
“Unless a batch (of vaccine) fails, we will be able to provide them. Our track record is that our batches don’t fail,” he said.
(Reporting by Michael Erman; Editing by Bill Berkrot)
