Moderna Announces COVAX Exercises Option to Purchase 176.5 Million Additional Doses of Moderna’s COVID-19 Vaccine for Low Income Countries in First Half of 2022
October 12 2021 - 09:07AM
Business Wire
More than 210 million doses have now been
purchased by COVAX for delivery to low income countries, including
34 million doses that will be delivered in Q4 2021
COVAX has options to purchase an additional 233
million doses in second half of 2022
Doses provided at lowest tiered price, in
keeping with Moderna’s global access principles
Moderna has requested authorization of a 50 µg
booster dose from global regulators, which could significantly
increase doses available to low income countries
Moderna, Inc. (Nasdaq: MRNA), a biotechnology company pioneering
messenger RNA (mRNA) therapeutics and vaccines, today announced
that Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance has exercised its option to
purchase an additional 176.5 million doses of the Moderna COVID-19
vaccine for the COVAX Facility. Of these additional doses, 116.5
million doses are expected to be delivered in the first quarter of
2022 and 60 million doses are expected to be delivered in the
second quarter of 2022. All doses are offered at Moderna’s lowest
tiered price, in line with the Company’s global access
commitments.
COVAX retains the option to purchase 116.5 million doses for
delivery in the third quarter of 2022 and an additional 116.5
million doses for delivery in the fourth quarter of 2022. These
doses are in addition to the 34 million doses purchased for
delivery in the fourth quarter of 2021.
The 210 million doses purchased to date by COVAX are 100 µg per
dose. Recently, Moderna has requested authorization of a 50 µg dose
as a booster from the same vial which would significantly increase
the number of usable doses procured by COVAX at no additional cost.
The average purchase price across all doses purchased to date is
just under $10 per 100 µg dose, equating to less than $5 per 50 µg
dose.
“I would like to thank COVAX for their tireless work to deliver
our vaccine to low income countries. We support COVAX’s mission to
ensure broad, affordable and equitable access to COVID-19 vaccines
and this agreement is an important pillar of our access strategy,”
said Stéphane Bancel, Chief Executive Officer of Moderna. “We
believe our vaccine can play an important role in addressing the
needs of low income countries given its combination of high Phase 3
efficacy against COVID-19, strong durability in the real-world
evidence, and superior storage and handling conditions. We
recognize that access to all vaccines, including ours, continues to
be a challenge in many parts of the world which is one of the
reasons why we have worked hard to enable a 50 µg booster dose,
which will increase the number of usable booster doses available to
low income countries at no additional cost.”
Through this long-term agreement, UNICEF and its procurement
partners have been provided access to up to 500 million doses of
the Moderna COVID-19 vaccine through 2022. This agreement covers
the 92 Gavi COVAX Advance Market Commitment (AMC) low- and
middle-income countries. The Company is in discussions to allocate
and supply to self-financing participants in the future. COVAX is a
global initiative co-led by Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance, the
Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations (CEPI) and the
World Health Organization (WHO), to ensure equitable access to
COVID-19 vaccines for all countries, regardless of income
levels.
This supply agreement with Gavi on behalf of the COVAX Facility
is an important pillar of Moderna’s comprehensive plan to bring
vaccines to as many people as possible around the world. On October
8, Mr. Bancel published a letter on Moderna’s commitment to global
vaccine access. Moderna also recently announced an investment of up
to $500 million to build a state-of-the-art mRNA facility in Africa
with the goal of producing up to 500 million doses of vaccines each
year at the 50 µg dose level.
About Moderna
In 10 years since its inception, Moderna has transformed from a
science research-stage company advancing programs in the field of
messenger RNA (mRNA), to an enterprise with a diverse clinical
portfolio of vaccines and therapeutics across six modalities, a
broad intellectual property portfolio in areas including mRNA and
lipid nanoparticle formulation, and an integrated manufacturing
plant that allows for both clinical and commercial production at
scale and at unprecedented speed. Moderna maintains alliances with
a broad range of domestic and overseas government and commercial
collaborators, which has allowed for the pursuit of both
groundbreaking science and rapid scaling of manufacturing. Most
recently, Moderna’s capabilities have come together to allow the
authorized use of one of the earliest and most-effective vaccines
against the COVID-19 pandemic.
Moderna’s mRNA platform builds on continuous advances in basic
and applied mRNA science, delivery technology and manufacturing,
and has allowed the development of therapeutics and vaccines for
infectious diseases, immuno-oncology, rare diseases, cardiovascular
diseases and autoimmune diseases. Moderna has been named a top
biopharmaceutical employer by Science for the past six years. To
learn more, visit www.modernatx.com.
Forward Looking Statements
This press release contains forward-looking statements within
the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of
1995, as amended, including regarding: the Company’s development of
a vaccine against COVID-19 (mRNA-1273); sales of mRNA-1273 to the
COVAX Facility and the timing for delivery of that supply; the
potential for the exercise of options by the COVAX Facility for
purchases of mRNA-1273; the potential for mRNA-1273 to be approved
as a booster at the 50 µg dose level; and the Company’s planned
investment in mRNA production facilities in Africa. The
forward-looking statements in this press release are neither
promises nor guarantees, and you should not place undue reliance on
these forward-looking statements because they involve known and
unknown risks, uncertainties, and other factors, many of which are
beyond Moderna’s control and which could cause actual results to
differ materially from those expressed or implied by these
forward-looking statements. These risks, uncertainties, and other
factors include those other risks and uncertainties described under
the heading “Risk Factors” in Moderna’s most recent Annual Report
on Form 10-K filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission
(SEC) and in subsequent filings made by Moderna with the SEC, which
are available on the SEC’s website at www.sec.gov. Except as
required by law, Moderna disclaims any intention or responsibility
for updating or revising any forward-looking statements contained
in this press release in the event of new information, future
developments or otherwise. These forward-looking statements are
based on Moderna’s current expectations and speak only as of the
date hereof.
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version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20211012005700/en/
Media: Colleen Hussey Director, Corporate Communications
617-335-1374 Colleen.Hussey@modernatx.com Investors: Lavina
Talukdar Senior Vice President & Head of Investor Relations
617-209-5834 Lavina.Talukdar@modernatx.com
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