It’s a deal! The US Government negotiated with Cambridge-based drugmaker Moderna to buy 100 million more doses of the COVID-19 vaccine they are expected to receive from the company in 2021.
As the largest pharmaceutical companies struggle to provide a global supply of vaccines to combat the coronavirus vaccines, Trump officials decided to double up on Moderna’s mRNA-1273 vaccine supply. The administration previously agreed to purchase 100 million doses of the vaccine, bringing its total purchase commitment to 200 million doses.
Approximately 20% of the first 100 million doses bought by the government will be delivered by the end of the month. The remaining 80 million doses are expected to be delivered in Q1 2021. The additional 100 million doses that was ordered on Friday will be delivered in Q2 2021. These vaccine deliveries are dependent upon an Emergency Use Authorization (EUA) from the Food and Drug Administration (FDA).
The FDA advisory panel will meet this Thursday to review Moderna’s vaccine and determine if it should receive full approval.
“We appreciate the confidence that the U.S. government continues to have in mRNA-1273, our COVID-19 vaccine candidate, demonstrated by this increased supply agreement,” said Stéphane Bancel, Founding CEO of Moderna Chief Executive Officer. “We continue to scale up our manufacturing capability in the U.S. and outside of the U.S. In parallel, we have filed for an Emergency Use Authorization with the U.S. FDA and a Conditional Marketing Authorization with the European Medicines Agency, and we will continue to work with regulatory agencies around the globe to continue the rolling review process.”
Alex Azar, the United States Secretary of Health and Human Services, has been pushing for an EUA approval of Pfizer/BioNTech mRNA vaccine. Although there are already 100 million vaccine doses that have been ordered from Pfizer/BioNTech, Azar believes that the new federal purchase more doses will further expand the country’s vaccination potential and provide greater confidence in the ability to vaccinate all Americans who want it by the end of Q2 2021.
“Securing another 100 million doses from Moderna by June 2021 further expands our supply of doses across the Operation Warp Speed portfolio of vaccines,” said Azar.
The U.S. has a confirmed total of 300 million doses that is expected to be enough to vaccinate 150 million Americans. There are 200 million doses coming from Moderna and 100 million doses from Pfizer/BioNTech.
Moderna, a biotechnology company that was founded only a decade ago, is leading the way in messenger RNA (mRNA) therapeutics and vaccines. This mRNA-1273 vaccine is Moderna’s first commercial product and is putting over $4 billion dollars from the government into the company’s pockets.
As some companies fall, other companies are gaining momentum during the pandemic. Moderna is at the forefront in vaccine development and has the potential to become an ultimate gamechanger in medicine as COVID-19 numbers continue to rise in the U.S. and abroad.
More than 72 million coronavirus cases have been confirmed globally with the U.S. accounting for over 22% (16.3 million) of the total cases reported, according to data from the Johns Hopkins Coronavirus Resource Center.
Unfortunately, death rates have been rapidly increasing as exposure spreads — more than 299,000 U.S. and over 1.6 million people around the world have died from the coronavirus since the pandemic began.
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