Japan has reached an agreement with the U.S. Pfizer pharmaceutical company on the supply of 144 million doses of the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine against the novel coronavirus within the year, the Kyodo news agency reported on Wednesday.
According to the news agency, the agreement secures an additional 24 million doses after the Japanese government in 2019 agreed with Pfizer on the delivery of 120 million doses of the vaccine.
The doses of the vaccine would be sufficient to inoculate 60 million people or roughly half of the country’s 126-million population.
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Apart from Pfizer, Japan also reached deals with UK-Swedish pharmaceutical giant AstraZeneca for another 120 million doses and U.S. company Moderna for 50 million doses.
The Asian country is expected to start mass vaccination of its population in February, with medical workers being the first to receive shots.
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