The United Kingdom has signed agreements to purchase 90 million doses of vaccines developed by drug companies such as Pfizer Inc., BioNTech SE, and Valneva SE.

The government in an official statement has said, it has secured access to three different vaccine candidates, and it's setting up a program seeking 500,000 volunteers to participate in clinical trials.

The UK also has an agreement for a vaccine being tested by AstraZeneca Plc with the University of Oxford and ordered treatments containing antibodies that neutralize Covid-19.

This the first binding agreement the UK has signed with any government. The US has been supporting Pfizer and BioNTech through a $10 billion Operation Warp Speed research program.