Moderna to Sell Additional 176.5 Million Covid-19 Vaccine Doses to Covax for Lower-Income Countries

By Robb M. Stewart

Biotechnology company Moderna Inc. will sell an additional 176.5 million doses of its Covid-19 vaccine to Covax, the world's main effort to supply such vaccines to poorer nations.

Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance exercised an option for the doses for the Covax facility to supply low-income countries, Moderna said Tuesday. All the doses are being sold at the lowest tiered price, with 116.5 million doses expected to be delivered in the first three months of next year and 60 million in the second quarter, the company said.

Covax, a facility started last year by the World Health Organizaton, retains an option to buy 116.5 million doses for delivery in the third quarter of 2022 and a further 116.5 million doses for delivery the following quarter. That is in addition to the 34 million doses bought for delivery in the fourth quarter of this year.

Moderna said the 210 million doses purchased to date by Covax are 100 micrograms per dose. The company recently requested authorization of a 50 ug dose as a booster from the same vial, which it said would significantly increase the number of usable doses procured by Covax at no additional cost. The average purchase price across all doses purchased to date is just under $10 per 100 ug dose, it said.

Write to Robb M. Stewart at [e-mail]

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

October 12, 2021 09:51 ET (13:51 GMT)

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