Moderna to ramp up Covid-19 vaccine production
MODERNA
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12:59 25/04/24
US biotech Moderna is to ramp up production of its Covid-19 vaccine, it was reported on Monday.
The company is adding two new production lines to its Norwood plant near Boston, Massachusetts, according to the Wall Street Journal, as it looks to prepare for making booster shots.
That move will help increase overall production capacity by 50% once the two lines are up and running. The first of those is expected to come online by late 2021 and the second by early 2022.
Chief executive Stéphane Bancel told the Wall Street Journal: “Our plan and our hope is that, as soon as the US has enough doses, we’re allowed to export to we can help as many countries as we can around the world.”
Moderna’s vaccine was granted Emergency Use Authorisation by the US Food and Drug Administration in December.
It received UK regulatory approval in January, shortly after the Pfizer-BioNTech and AstraZeneca-University of Oxford vaccines were given the green light. The UK government has so far acquired 17m doses, with roll-out of the jab starting in April.
Moderna, which shipped 100m doses to the US in the first quarter, expects to supply around 1.0bn doses of the drug this year.