Moderna Inc.’s (NASDAQ:MRNA) COVID-19 vaccine could receive US FDA approval later this month based on strong efficacy results that showed the vaccine to be 94% effective. The company’s CEO, Stephane Bancel, has now indicated that the company will manage to produce up to 500 million doses of the vaccine next year.
Moderna vaccine shows 94.1% effectiveness
Bancel stated at the Nasdaq Investor Conference on Friday that they are confident of producing around 500 million doses in 2021. He said that Moderna would maintain a premium price of $37 for the vaccine doses, but the premium price could fall to $25 for substantial volume supplies such as the US government order.
Moderna submitted applications to the US FDA and European Union for Emergency Use Authorization of the vaccine after study results showed that the vaccine is 94.1% effective without any adverse drug events. The FDA is planning to host an advisory committee meeting on December 17, 2020, to discuss Moderna’s request for EUA for mRNA-1273. New data published in the New England Journal of Medicine indicated that people that received the Moderna vaccine showed elevated antibodies three months post the second dose. Dr. Tal Zaks, Moderna’s Chief Medical Officer, said that the data offer optimism the high efficacy levels demonstrated by their mRNA-1273 vaccine against SARS-CoV-2 will be durable.
Moderna to deliver 125 million doses in Q1 2021
The company continues to see a growing demand for additional doses of the vaccine from several countries following the positive clinical data. On Friday, the company extended the deal with the Israeli government to supply another 4 million doses of mRNA-1273 vaccine.
Moderna indicated that in Q1 2021, it expects to deliver up to 125 million doses of the vaccine candidate globally. The Cambridge-based drugmaker said that between 85 million and 100 million vaccine doses would be available in the US. At the same time, 15 million to 85 million will be available to the rest of the world. The Q1 2021 doses are part of the 500 million to 1 billion doses of Moderna targets in 2021.
