Israel signed a deal on Friday with Pfizer to receive 8 million doses of the pharmaceutical company’s potential coronavirus vaccine, announced Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
The Israeli leader said that the two-dose treatment of the potential vaccine would cover 4 million Israelis, or almost half the population.
Israel would give Pfizer a $35 million advance as early as next week and an additional almost $202 million in January, when the possible vaccine would begin arriving, reported Ynet. The cost of a person getting the potential two-dose vaccine would be around $56.
Friday’s agreement still needs approval by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration and Israel’s Ministry of Health.
Israeli Health Minister Yuli Edelstein said Pfizer is likely to seek approval this month.
In remarks on Friday, Netanyahu said that in addition to the deal with Pfizer, Israel has “more agreements with additional promising companies on the way to receiving additional millions of vaccines for the citizens of Israel.”
Despite promising news about a vaccine, he stressed, Israel still needs to follow COVID-19 restrictions and protocols “until the arrival of the vaccines, and even afterwards.”