Moderna raises vaccine supply estimate

Moderna said it will increase supply of its Covid-19 vaccine, from its original base-case global production estimate of 500 million to at least 600 million doses for 2021. The company stated that it is continuing to invest and hire staff to build up to potentially 1 billion doses for the year.

Domestically, Moderna said it expects about 100 million doses to be available in the US by the end of Q1, with 200 million available by the end of Q2. The biotech reported that approximately 18 million doses have been supplied to the US government to date. Its vaccine received emergency use authorization from the FDA on Dec. 18 for individuals 18 years or age and older.

The news comes after Pfizer and BioNTech SE announced a second agreement before the holidays with the US government to supply an additional 100 million doses of their vaccine from production facilities in North America, bringing the total number of expected delivered doses to 200 million.