The United States can expect to see a total of 240 million doses of Covid-19 vaccine by the end of March, drug companies told a House subcommittee Tuesday.

Pfizer and Moderna -- the two companies with Covid-19 vaccines authorized for emergency use in the United States -- have pledged to make a combined total of 220 million doses available for shipment by the end of March. Meanwhile, Johnson & Johnson, which could secure emergency use authorization for its Covid-19 vaccine from the US Food and Drug Administration later this week, has pledged to make 20 million doses available in the same time frame.

"If the emergency use authorization is received this week, we hope to contribute to ending this pandemic as soon as possible," Dr Richard Nettles, J&J's vice president of medical affairs, told lawmakers.

Nettles said the company is prepared to immediately ship nearly 4 million doses upon authorization of the vaccine.
Executives from each of the vaccine makers, along with executives from AstraZeneca and Novavax, testified before the House Committee on Energy and Commerce Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations on Tuesday.

A fourth Covid-19 vaccine could become available in the US in April, when AstraZeneca could secure FDA authorization of its vaccine. Dr Ruud Dobber, the executive vice president and president of AstraZeneca's biopharmaceuticals business unit, said the company will immediately release 30 million doses upon authorization of the vaccine and up to 50 million doses by the end of April.

Pfizer had expected to deliver 30 to 40 million doses to the US by the end of 2020 but only hit the 40 million mark last week. Moderna had been projected to deliver 20 million doses to the US by the end of 2020 but fell short by a week. When asked on Tuesday why they didn't deliver on time, executives for the companies said access to raw materials and manufacturing a product that had never been made before both contributed to the problem.
"We did initially experience some problems with the initial ramp up of our vaccine," John Young, Pfizer's chief business officer, said. "We particularly saw some rate-limiting steps for the raw materials," Young added.

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https://edition.cnn.com/2021/02/23/health/vaccines-doses-end-of-march/index.html