The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services and Department of Defense announced on Friday that they will purchase 100 million additional doses of Moderna's coronavirus vaccine candidate.
Why it matters: The purchase will bring the total doses of Moderna's vaccine owned by the federal government to 200 million, HHS said. The vaccine is still awaiting emergency use approval from the Food and Drug Administration.
The big picture: Moderna filed an emergency use authorization application for the vaccine to the FDA in November. The company said the vaccine has an efficacy rate of 94.1%.
- An FDA advisory panel is scheduled to meet Dec. 17 to review the application.
- By the end of 2020, Moderna expects to have approximately 20 million vaccine doses available in the U.S, and plans to manufacture 500 million to 1 billion doses globally in 2021, according to a press release.
- The FDA could make a final decision on Pfizer and BioNTech’s coronavirus vaccine as early as Friday. An advisory panel recommended the approval of the vaccine on Thursday.
What they're saying: “Securing another 100 million doses from Moderna by June 2021 further expands our supply of doses across the Operation Warp Speed portfolio of vaccines,” said HHS Secretary Alex Azar said in a statement Friday.
- “This new federal purchase can give Americans even greater confidence we will have enough supply to vaccinate all Americans who want it by the second quarter of 2021.”
Of note: The government also has the option to acquire up to an additional 300 million doses of Moderna's vaccine.
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