Moderna, UNICEF to Supply COVID-19 Vaccine on Behalf of COVAX

Moderna and UNICEF recently signed a long-term agreement for the supply of COVID-19 vaccine on behalf of the COVAX Facility, part of the agreement announced in May. 

UNICEF and its procurement partners, including the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO), will have access to nearly 34 billion doses of COVID-19 Vaccine Moderna. The doses will be delivered in the fourth quarter of 2021.

Additionally, 466 million doses are expected to be delivered in 2022. All doses are being offered at Moderna’s lowest tiered price, the company highlighted.

Moderna’s vaccine is part of the COVAX research and development portfolio. 

In April, the vaccine received Emergency Use Listing from the World Health Organization., making it eligible to be supplied to COVAX Facility participants.  COVAX co-lead CEPI provided initial investment in COVID-19 Vaccine Moderna to support production of the first clinical trial materials. 

Then at the beginning of May, Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance, announced that it signed an advanced purchase agreement with Moderna for 500 million doses of COVID-19 Vaccine Moderna. 

The initial supply under the agreement, secured on behalf of the COVAX Facility, is for advanced market commitment (AMC)-eligible participants. There is also a potential to allocate supply to self-financing participants in the future.

“We are proud and humbled to be able to supply our vaccine through this long-term agreement with UNICEF in support of efforts to end this pandemic,” Stéphane Bancel, chief executive officer of Moderna, said in the recent announcement. 

“We share in the mission of the COVAX Facility to ensure global access to vaccines including in low- and middle-income countries around the world,” Bancel continued. 

Various studies and analysis have found COVID-19 Vaccine Moderna to be substantially effective against the coronavirus. 

For example, a second primary analysis released in December found COVID-19 Vaccine Moderna 94.1 percent effective against the coronavirus. 

The Phase 3 study, COVE, enrolled over 30,000 participants in the US and was based on the analysis of COVID-19 cases confirmed and adjudicated two weeks after the second dose of a vaccine. 

Vaccine efficiency was observed in a total of 196 cases, of which 185 were in the placebo group and 11 were in the mRNA-1273 group.

And in April, the New England Journal of Medicine released antibody persistence data six months following the second dose of the COVID-19 Vaccine Moderna. Specifically, the antibodies elicited by the vaccine persisted through six months after the second dose.

Researchers found that nearly all participants in the study had detectable activity in pseudovirus neutralization assay. 

Due to these positive results, Moderna increased the global 2022 capacity for its vaccine to nearly 3 billion doses, boosting production at its owned and partnered manufacturing facilities. 

The global capacity will be dependent upon the mix between Moderna’s FDA-approved COVID-19 vaccine at the 100-microgram level and the potentially lower doses of the company’s variant booster candidates and pediatric vaccines, if authorized.

At the same time, the company raised its 2021 manufacturing supply forecast to between 800 million to 1 billion doses.

Most recently, Moderna and Thermo Fisher Scientific entered into an agreement for fill/finish sterile manufacturing services and supply packaging for COVID-19 Vaccine Moderna. 

Under the terms of the agreement, Thermo Fisher Scientific’s commercial manufacturing site in  North Carolina will be used for aseptic fill/finish, labeling and packaging to support the production of millions of doses of the vaccine. 

Production will begin in the third quarter of 2021.

Juan Andres, Moderna’s chief technical operations and quality officer at Moderna explained that the company is “pleased” to expand its relationship with Thermo Fisher Scientific as an important manufacturing partner. The addition of Thermo Fisher Scientific to the overall network will help to support efforts to scale up our manufacturing ability.