Pharmaceutical company Moderna (NASDAQ:MRNA) says the U.S. government has exercised its option to buy 100 million additional doses of the company’s COVID-19 vaccine.
The new order is worth $1.65 billion U.S. to Moderna and doubles the amount of the vaccine the U.S. government initially committed to purchase. The new purchase also eases concern that the U.S. could experience a vaccine shortfall.
Moderna’s additional vaccines will be delivered in the U.S. during the second quarter of 2021. The Cambridge, Massachusetts-based drug maker will be able to provide a continuous supply of vaccine doses through the end of June, according to the U.S. government.
There had been concerns that the U.S. might not have sufficient supply of Covid-19 vaccines following reports that the government had passed on an offer from Pfizer for more of the vaccine it developed with BioNTech (NASDAQ:BNTX), which has now been granted emergency use authorization in America.
As part of Operation Warp Speed, the U.S. initiative to rapidly develop vaccines against COVID-19, the U.S. has the option to buy another 300 million doses from Moderna at a fixed price of $16.50 U.S. per vaccine, the company said. The experimental messenger RNA vaccine, which is administered in two doses, is being evaluated by the FDA and could receive an emergency-use authorization before the end of December.
Moderna has said it expects to produce 500 million to one billion doses of its vaccine in 2021. It is currently making U.S. supply at its plant in Massachusetts and another factory in New Hampshire owned by manufacturing partner Lonza Group AG. Lonza Group is also producing supply for other countries at a plant in Switzerland.
Moderna has agreements in place to supply its vaccine to the European Union, the United Kingdom, Japan, Canada, Switzerland, Israel and Qatar, among others.
