Moderna, Inc. a biotechnology company pioneering messenger RNA (mRNA) therapeutics and vaccines, announced an agreement with Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance to supply up to 500 million doses of the COVID-19 Vaccine Moderna, including an initial 34 million doses to be delivered in the fourth quarter of 2021. Through this agreement, on behalf of the COVAX Facility, Gavi also retains the option to procure 466 million additional doses in 2022. All doses are offered at Moderna’s lowest tiered price, in line with the Company’s global access commitments.
This agreement covers the 92 Gavi COVAX Advance Market Commitment (AMC) low- and middle-income countries. The Company is in discussions to allocate and supply to self-financing participants in the future. COVAX is a global initiative co-led by Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance (Gavi), the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations (CEPI) and the World Health Organization (WHO), to ensure equitable access to COVID-19 vaccines for all countries, regardless of income levels.
On April 30, the World Health Organization (WHO) issued an Emergency Use Listing (EUL) for Moderna’s COVID-19 vaccine to prevent COVID-19 in individuals 18 years of age and older.
“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, Chief Executive Officer of Moderna. “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 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,” said Dr. Seth Berkley, CEO of Gavi. “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.”
“We must find ways to help world-changing breakthroughs – especially in the form of life-saving medicines like mRNA – reach the entire world,” said Noubar Afeyan, Ph.D., Co-Founder and Chairman of Moderna, and CEO of Flagship Pioneering. “I am delighted that the Moderna team has been able to bring this agreement with COVAX to completion, and with it the opportunity to bring up to half a billion doses of our vaccine to populations in 92 of the lowest income countries in the world. Having experienced the impact such agreements can have on reaching global development goals, I could not be more excited.”