Moderna Raises Covid-19 Vaccine Production Estimate
06 January 2021 - 3:17AM
Dow Jones News
By Jonathan D. Rockoff
Moderna Inc. said it will be able to make at least 600 million
doses of its Covid-19 vaccine this year, 100 million more than it
had been projecting.
The Cambridge, Mass., company also said it is making investments
and adding staff to make as much as one billion doses this
year.
Last month, Moderna's Covid-19 vaccine became the second to be
authorized for use in the U.S. by the Food and Drug Administration,
after a shot from Pfizer Inc. and partner BioNTech SE was
cleared.
Both vaccines use a new, gene-based technology requiring special
manufacturing equipment and expertise. The companies have been
racing to build capacity, often with the help of partners like
Lonza Ltd., to meet heavy demand.
"Our ability to increase baseline production estimates for 2021
are both signals that our scale up of mRNA vaccine production is a
success," said Juan Andres, Moderna's head of technical
operations.
Moderna has agreed to supply 517 million doses world-wide with
options to make 376 million more, according to Jefferies & Co.,
which projects the shots will generate at least $11 billion in
sales this year.
Moderna says it has supplied about 18 million doses of its
vaccine to the U.S. government so far. It expects about 100 million
doses will be available for use in the U.S. by the end of March and
a total of 200 million doses.
The U.S. federal government has bought 200 million doses, with
options to purchase another 300 million more, and has been
overseeing their distribution.
Canada, which also cleared Moderna's vaccine last month, has
bought 40 million doses.
Israel on Monday became the third country to authorize Moderna's
vaccine. Moderna said Israel has secured six million doses and it
will begin deliveries shortly.
The authorizations are based on late-stage testing that found
Moderna's vaccine was 94.1% effective and generally well tolerated.
In the trial, subjects got two doses four weeks apart.
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
January 05, 2021 11:02 ET (16:02 GMT)
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