Pharmaceutical giant Moderna is extremely easy about making 500 million doses of its coronavirus vaccine in 2021. However the chances of hitting the one billion doses of the vaccine doses goal before 2021 is highly unlikely, CEO Stephane Bancel said. He also stated in a NASDAQ event that Moderna needs ‘significant resources’ to produce the billion doses goal. However, the company recently affirmed that it will make the goal of producing 20 million vaccine doses for the U.S. by the end of 2020.
The announcements we made after drug giant Pfizer admitted that it wouldn’t achieve its 2020 goal of 100 million doses globally. Instead, the firm would produce 50 million doses that would be sufficient to vaccinate 25 million people with the two-dose regimen.
The CEO also stated that the company would maintain a regulated premium price $37 for the vaccine doses. ‘For large volume vaccine supplies like to the U.S. government, we look forward to keeping $25 for doses’.
Operation Warp Speed, which is the vaccine initiative by US government, has so far purchased 100 million doses of Moderna’s shot through a quantified investment of up to $1.5 billion in the development and research funding process for Moderna’s drug shot.
The coronavirus vaccine by Moderna also showed positivity in protecting people for at least three months.
The vaccine doses by Moderna is also on the process to meet the lower quantity end of its goal to make 50 million doses of coronavirus vaccine in 2021.
The UK has so far ordered seven million doses of the vaccine by Moderna, after adding another two million doses count last month to the initial purchase. Moderna drug firm is a significantly new entity and is based in Cambridge, Massachusetts. The entity was founded on 2010 and it offered around a decade of its experience to stand as a competitor to Pfizer’s 170+ years. But the new firm raced to the forefront of the coronavirus vaccine race with the mRNA shot.
The vaccine by Moderna was 94.5% effective in preventing COVID-19 during the final testing phase before it was applied for the emergency Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approval.
The latest study of the vaccine effects gives hope to millions that the two-dose shot regimen will be effective for months after the second one is given and would hopefully prevent more infections.
This is a double-win situation for Moderna, which also confirmed that it will be able to deliver 20 million doses of the COVID-19 vaccine to the U.S. by 2020-end after drug giant Pfizer admitted that it would be able to distribute only 50 million doses by 2020-end.
Moderna initially in the testing phase vaccinated 34 healthy adults from ages 18 and older in the month of March to test the safety of the COVID-19 vaccine the company was developing.
Two months into the administration of vaccine first doses on the patients, the researchers followed up with them and found out that the people weren’t facing any serious side effects, which was a good sign. The firm also tested blood samples of the people and found hints that the vaccine might be effective. Also, the vaccinated people showed high traces of antibodies and immune cells in the body. However, there was no confirmation as to how long the antibodies will remain in the body or if the virus will remain in the immune memory of those people who got received vaccine doses.
