US secures access to 100M more doses of Moderna’s COVID-19 vaccine

Dania Nadeem, Reuters

Updated: Dec 11, 2020 / 05:27 PM CST

The Moderna headquarters is seen on November 30, 2020 in Cambridge, Massachusetts. (Photo by Maddie Meyer/Getty Images)

Dec 11 (Reuters) — Moderna Inc said on Friday the U.S. government will get an additional 100 million doses of its COVID-19 vaccine candidate, expected to be delivered in the second quarter of 2021 if authorized.

Shares of the company were up 2.8% at $161.30 after the bell.

The government has ordered a total of 200 million doses to date, the vaccine developer said, adding that of first order lot, about 20 million doses will be delivered by December end and the remaining in the first quarter of 2021.

The United States in August entered an agreement with Moderna to acquire 100 million doses of its potential COVID-19 vaccine for around $1.5 billion, with an option to secure an additional 400 million doses.

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A panel of outside advisers to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration is scheduled to hold a meeting on Dec. 17 to discuss Moderna’s request for emergency use authorization (EUA) for its vaccine.

Meanwhile, the FDA is expected to issue an EUA for Pfizer Inc and partner BioNTech SE’s two-dose COVID-19 vaccine as soon as Friday.