On Mar. 3, 2021, Pfizer and BioNTech, in partnership with UNICEF, announced the arrival of the first doses of their COVID-19 vaccine in Rwanda through the COVAX Facility.

This was the companies’ first delivery to a COVAX Advanced Market Commitment country of their mRNA vaccine. The almost 103,000 doses were to vaccinate at-risk, front-line healthcare workers across the country.

Pfizer and BioNTech have already supplied doses through COVAX to South Korea and Colombia and will continue supplying doses to a number of diverse economies in all regions of the world, including a number of low and lower-middle income countries, as part of the up to 40 million doses the companies have committed to the Facility through 2021.

The vaccine, which is based on BioNTech’s proprietary mRNA technology, was developed by both BioNTech and Pfizer. BioNTech is the Marketing Authorizations Holder in the European Union, and the holder of emergency use authorizations or equivalent in the United States, United Kingdom, Canada and other countries in advance of a planned application for full marketing authorizations in these countries.

The Pfizer-BioNTech COVID19 Vaccine is authorized for use under an Emergency Use Authorization (EUA) for active immunization to prevent coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) in individuals 16 years of age and older.