Moderna to Supply Up to 500 Million COVID-19 Vaccine Doses to Low- and Middle-Income Countries

Moderna announced on May 3, 2021 that it has entered into an agreement with Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance to supply up to 500 million doses of Moderna’s COVID-19 vaccine to low-income countries.

The agreement is part of a partnership between the COVAX Facility, a global initiative co-led by Gavi, the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations, and the World Health Organization. Under the terms, Moderna will supply the vaccine to the 92 Gavi COVAX Advance Market Commitment low- and middle-income countries, Moderna said in a company press release. Gavi will also maintain the option to obtain 466 million additional doses in 2022.

“I am grateful to our Gavi and COVAX partners for their tireless work and to the entire Moderna team for their collaboration to reach this agreement. This is an important milestone as we work to ensure that people around the world have access to our COVID-19 vaccine,” said Stéphane Bancel, CEO of Moderna, in the press release. “We recognize that many countries have limited resources to access COVID-19 vaccines. We support COVAX’s mission to ensure broad, affordable and equitable access to COVID-19 vaccines, and we remain committed to doing everything that we can to ending this ongoing pandemic with our mRNA [messenger RNA] COVID-19 vaccine.”

“We are very pleased to sign this new agreement with Moderna, giving COVAX Facility participants access to yet another highly efficacious vaccine,” added Seth Berkley, CEO of Gavi, in the press release. “Expanding and having a diverse portfolio has always been a core goal for COVAX, and to remain adaptable in the face of this continually evolving pandemic—including the rising threat posed by new variants. This agreement is a further step in that direction.”

Source: Moderna