Pharmaceutical giant Pfizer Inc (NYSE:PFE) and immunotherapy company BioNTech SE (Nasdaq:BNTX) announced on Friday that they have won a contract from the Japanese Government to supply 120 million doses of their BNT162 mRNA-based vaccine candidate against SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19.

Financial details of the agreement with the Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare were not disclosed.

BNT162 is based on BioNTech's proprietary mRNA technology and supported by Pfizer's global vaccine development and manufacturing capabilities. The vaccine development programme is evaluating at least four experimental vaccine candidates, each of which represents a unique combination of messenger RNA (mRNA) format and target antigen.

The BNT162 vaccine candidates are currently in clinical studies and are not yet approved for distribution anywhere in the world. Two of the four investigational vaccine candidates, BNT162b1 and BNT162b2, recently received Fast Track designation from the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA).

Deliveries of the vaccine candidate to Japan are planned for the first half of 2021, subject to regulatory approval.