Moderna Provides Update on US COVID-19 Vaccine Supply

To date, 45.4 million doses of Moderna’s coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) vaccine have been supplied to the US government, according to a recent update from the company that details progress on their ongoing collaboration with the US government. Following the emergency use authorization by the FDA for Moderna’s COVID-19 vaccine on December 18, 2020, Moderna began to supply the vaccine immediately, via an agreement to purchase million doses in total.

Moderna explained in the statement that an additional 33.2 million doses of their COVID-19 vaccine are presently in vials but remain at various stages of final production and testing before it will be possible to release them for use by the US government. Currently, approximately 25.5 million doses of Moderna’s COVID-19 vaccine have been administered in the United States, according to data from the CDC.

Although some short-term delays have occurred in the final stages of production and in the release of filled vials from Catalent, a fill and finish contractor that Moderna has been collaborating with, these delays should not impact the ability of the company to meet their monthly delivery targets, as set by their contract with the US government.

Moderna noted that they should be able to meet the commitment dates in the United States for all currently ordered doses of their COVID-19 vaccine, which includes the delivery target of the first 100 million doses by the end of the first quarter of 2021.

Additionally, the delivery of the second 100 million doses has been moved forward by 1 month, changing it from the end of June 2021 to the end of May 2021, which is a commitment date the company expects to meet successfully. The company also expects to meet the accelerated delivery date of its third 100 million doses, which has been moved from the end of September 2021 to the end of July 2021.

With these new commitment dates, the company explained that they have ramped up production over the last few months in order to meet these goals, and they expect to further ramp up production in the coming months as well.

Moderna produced 17.8 million doses of the vaccine between October and the end of December 2020, which were released at the end of December. An additional 19.1 million doses were produced and released in January 2021, as the company was able to almost triple their monthly production in that time, according to a press release.

The monthly doses of vaccine released to the US Government are projected to double again by April, with an expected average of 30 million to 35 million doses released per month in February and March 2021, and 40 million to 50 million doses released per month from April through the end of July 2021.

Moderna also explained in the release that since they do not plan to stockpile significant quantities of the vaccine to ease the shipment process, they will instead ship doses to the US government as they are available. For this reason, the total released doses of the vaccine each week is expected to be inconsistent, meaning it may not be an accurate reflection of the planned trajectory of manufacturing scale-up.

However, Moderna is in active and frequent communication with the US government regarding the expected timing of deliveries to support COVID-19 vaccination efforts, the company said in a press release.

REFERENCE

Moderna Provides U.S. COVID-19 Vaccine Supply Update. Cambridge, MA: Moderna, Inc.; February 16, 2021. https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20210216005775/en. Accessed February 17, 2021.