Moderna to produce 20m vaccines by end of year

September 18, 2020 23:02

The US biotech company Moderna has announced that it expects to produce 20m doses of its experimental coronavirus vaccine by the end of the year, Reuters reports.

The announcement, made in a filing with US securities regulators, comes after Modernas chief executive, Stephane Bancel, told Reuters on Thursday the company plans to seek emergency authorisation for the vaccines use in high-risk groups if it proves even just 70 per cent effective.

Moderna has never brought a vaccine to market, but has received nearly $1bn from the US government under its Operation Warp Speed programme and has also struck a $1.5bn supply agreement with the US.

The vaccine aims to use messenger RNA to trick recipients bodies into producing viral proteins themselves. No mRNA vaccine has ever been approved for an infectious disease, but proponents say it could be easier to mass produce than traditional vaccines.

The company continues to expect to make 500m-1bn doses of the vaccine in 2021, Moderna said in the filing on Friday.

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