Moderna announced yesterday that it expects to have between 100 million and 125 million doses of its COVID-19 vaccine available globally in the first quarter of 2021.
The company added that 85 million to 100 million of those doses will be allocated to the US, with 15 million to 25 million doses set to be available elsewhere.
The new supply commitments come on the heels of Moderna’s previously announced primary efficacy analysis in November.
Moderna announced that initial data from an interim analysis of its phase 3 COVE study suggested that its COVID-19 vaccine, mRNA-1273, is 94.5% effective.
The preliminary data was based on analysis of 95 confirmed COVID-19 cases within the study – 90 of which occurred in the placebo group and five within the vaccinated arm.
The updated data analysis is based on 196 cases, of which 185 cases of COVID-19 were observed in the placebo group versus 11 cases in the mRNA-1273 group, reflecting a point estimate vaccine efficacy of 94.1%.
In addition, an analysis of severe cases of COVID-19 within the study found 30 severe cases – all of these cases occurred in the placebo group, with none observed in the mRNA-1273 vaccinated group.
Moderna has already submitted a conditional approval request to the European Medicines Agency (EMA) as well as an emergency use authorisation (EUA) submission to US Food an Drug Administration (FDA) for mRNA-1273.
It has also signed a number of supply deals in different regions, including an agreement with the European Commission for 160 million doses of mRNA-1273.
In August, Moderna also signed a deal with the US government for 100 million doses of mRNA-1273 for $1.5bn. Under the terms of the agreement – as part of the government’s Operation Warp Speed – the US will also have the option to purchase an additional 400 million doses of the vaccine.
The UK government has also agreed to purchase seven million doses of the Moderna’s potential COVID-19 vaccine candidate – enough to vaccinate around 3.5 million people.
So far, the UK has secured access to COVID-19 vaccine candidates from AstraZeneca, BioNTech/Pfizer, Novavax, Valneva, GlaxoSmithKline/Sanofi Pasteur and Janssen, as well as Moderna.
Following the UK’s approval of Pfizer/BioNTech’s COVID-19 vaccine BNT162b2 this week, the first doses of this vaccine are expected to be available next week, with priority groups including care home residents and healthcare workers among the first to be offered the vaccine.