4 recent pharmaceutical purchases made by the US

Here are four purchasing deals the U.S. has made with drugmakers in the past four weeks:

1. The U.S. on Oct. 28 purchased 50 million more doses of Pfizer's COVID-19 vaccine to prepare for pediatric vaccinations.
   
   
2. The U.S. on Nov. 9 purchased 1.4 million more courses of molnupiravir, the COVID-19 antiviral pill Merck is developing with Ridgeback Biotherapeutics, for roughly $1 billion. The U.S. has now committed to purchase a total of 3.1 million courses of the antiviral for about $2.2 billion.
   
   
3. The U.S. said Nov. 16 it will buy 10 million courses of Pfizer's COVID-19 antiviral pill Paxlovid for $5 billion.
   
   
4. The U.S. on Nov. 17 bought $1 billion worth of COVID-19 monoclonal antibody drug sotrovimab, which is made by GlaxoSmithKline and Vir Biotechnology.