Moderna to roll out 125 million doses of its COVID-19 vaccine by first quarter of 2021

Moderna, Inc. on December 3 provided an update on the clinical development and production of mRNA-1273, its vaccine candidate against COVID-19. It also announced that the company expects to have between 100 million and 125 million doses available globally in the first quarter of 2021. Out of this, 80-100 million doses will be distributed in the United States. Moderna has created its shots with the US National Institute of Health and a recent study revealed that its vaccine candidate offers strong protection and is more than 94 per cent effective. Moderna is ramping up the race to being limited vaccinations as the COVID-19 pandemic worsens. 

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Tal Zaks, M.D., Ph.D., Chief Medical Officer of Moderna said, “These interim Phase 1 data suggests that mRNA-1273, our COVID-19 vaccine candidate can generate durable neutralizing antibodies across all age groups including in older and elderly adults. Live virus and pseudovirus assay geometric mean titers (GMTs) remain high in the first months following vaccination. These data give us further optimism to expect that the high level of efficacy recently demonstrated by mRNA-1273 to prevent COVID-19 disease will be durable”. 

Countries secure deal

Regarding the vaccine, Moderna previously said that storage and handling of the vaccine can be done using existing infrastructure. The vaccine is survivable in a standard medical refrigerator at 2-8 degree Celsius for up to 30 days and longer in a freezer (-4 to -20 degree Celsius). Apart from the US, the United Kingdom has also secured an additional two million doses of Moderna’s COVID-19 vaccine candidate. The European Union's executive also confirmed that it will be signing  a contract for up to 160 million doses of the experimental coronavirus vaccine developed by Moderna. 

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On December 3, an article published in the New England Journal of Medicine  said that the participants in the Phase 1 study of mRNA-1273 had retained high levels of antibodies through the 119 days. Explaining this, Author Alicia T. Widge M.D. of Vaccine Research Center, NIAID, NIH and others summarized that “mRNA-1273 produced high levels of binding and neutralizing antibodies that declined slightly over time, as expected, but they remained elevated in all participants three months after the booster vaccination”. The authors also said, “Although correlates of protection against SARS-CoV-2 infection in humans are not yet established, these results show that despite a slight expected decline in titers of binding and neutralizing antibodies, mRNA-1273 has the potential to provide durable humoral immunity”.

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(Image Credits: AP/PTI)