Moderna Announces New Supply Agreement with Switzerland for 7 Million Booster Vaccine Doses in 2022 and Option for Additional 7 Million Doses
Moderna (Nasdaq: MRNA) announced a new supply agreement with the Swiss Federal Government to deliver 7 million doses of its booster vaccine in 2022, with an option for an additional 7 million doses for late 2022 or early 2023, contingent on regulatory approval. This follows prior agreements totaling 13.5 million doses. Data from a Phase 2 study indicates that booster doses increased neutralizing antibody responses against SARS-CoV-2 variants. Safety profiles for the booster were comparable to prior doses. Moderna continues to adapt its vaccine to combat emerging variants.
- New supply agreement for 7 million doses with Swiss Federal Government.
- Option for an additional 7 million doses increases potential revenue.
- Positive initial data showing increased antibody response against variants in Phase 2 study.
- Dependence on regulatory approval for the booster vaccine candidate.
- Potential risks associated with ongoing clinical trials and regulatory processes.
Moderna, Inc. (Nasdaq: MRNA), a biotechnology company pioneering messenger RNA (mRNA) therapeutics and vaccines, today announced a new supply agreement with the Swiss Federal Government for 7 million doses of booster vaccine in 2022, with an additional option for another 7 million doses for delivery during the second half of 2022 or first quarter of 2023. Purchase under this agreement is subject to regulatory approval of the booster vaccine candidate. Today’s announcement follows two earlier agreements between Switzerland and Moderna to supply a total of 13.5 million doses of the COVID-19 Vaccine Moderna. Swissmedic, the Swiss Agency for Therapeutic Products, authorized the COVID-19 Vaccine Moderna in Switzerland on January 12, 2021.
“We appreciate the partnership of the Swiss Federal Government, and their continued support demonstrated by this new supply agreement for doses of Moderna variant booster candidates,” said Stéphane Bancel, Chief Executive Officer of Moderna. “We are encouraged by the new data, which reinforce our confidence that our booster strategy should be protective against these newly detected variants and we will continue to make as many updates to our COVID-19 vaccine as necessary to control the pandemic.”
Initial data from Moderna’s Phase 2 study in the U.S. showed that a single 50 µg dose of mRNA-1273 or mRNA-1273.351 given as a booster to previously vaccinated individuals increased neutralizing antibody titer responses against SARS-CoV-2 and two variants of concern, B.1.351 (first identified in South Africa) and P.1 (first identified in Brazil). A booster dose of mRNA-1273.351, the Company’s strain-matched booster, achieved higher neutralizing antibody titers against the B.1.351 variant of concern than a booster dose of mRNA-1273. Safety and tolerability profiles following third dose booster injections of 50 µg of mRNA-1273 or mRNA-1273.351 were generally comparable to those observed after the second dose of mRNA-1273 in the previously reported Phase 2 and Phase 3 studies. A manuscript describing these preliminary results has been submitted as a preprint to bioRxiv and will be submitted for peer-reviewed publication upon completion of the multivalent mRNA-1273.211 booster arm.
About the COVID-19 Vaccine Moderna
The COVID-19 Vaccine Moderna (referred to in the U.S. as the Moderna COVID-19 Vaccine) is an mRNA vaccine against COVID-19 encoding for a prefusion stabilized form of the Spike (S) protein, which was co-developed by Moderna and investigators from the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases’ (NIAID) Vaccine Research Center. The first clinical batch, which was funded by the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations, was completed on February 7, 2020 and underwent analytical testing; it was shipped to the National Institutes of Health (NIH) on February 24, 42 days from sequence selection. The first participant in the NIAID-led Phase 1 study of the Moderna COVID-19 Vaccine was dosed on March 16, 63 days from sequence selection to Phase 1 study dosing. On May 12, the U.S Food and Drug Administration granted the Moderna COVID-19 Vaccine Fast Track designation. On May 29, the first participants in each age cohort: adults ages 18-55 years (n=300) and older adults ages 55 years and above (n=300) were dosed in the Phase 2 study of the vaccine. On July 8, the Phase 2 study completed enrolment.
Results from the second interim analysis of the NIH-led Phase 1 study of the Moderna COVID-19 Vaccine in the 56-70 and 71+ age groups were published on September 29 in The New England Journal of Medicine. On November 30, 2020, Moderna announced the primary efficacy analysis of the Phase 3 study of the vaccine conducted on 196 cases. On November 30, 2020, the Company also announced that it filed for Emergency Use Authorization with the U.S.FDA and a Conditional Marketing Authorization (CMA) application with the European Medicines Agency. On December 18, 2020, the U.S. FDA authorized the emergency use of the Moderna COVID-19 Vaccine in individuals 18 years of age or older. Moderna has also received authorization for its COVID-19 vaccine from health agencies in Canada, Israel, the European Union, the United Kingdom, Switzerland, Singapore, Qatar, Taiwan, the Philippines and from the World Health Organization. Additional authorizations are currently under review in other countries.
Authorized Use
The COVID-19 Vaccine Moderna has been granted temporary approval by Swissmedic, the Swiss Agency for Therapeutic Products, based upon the recommendation of the Human Medicines Expert Committee (HMEC), which authorizes the COVID-19 Vaccine Moderna for active immunization to prevent COVID-19 caused by SARS-CoV-2 virus in individuals 18 years of age and older.
About Moderna
In 10 years since its inception, Moderna has transformed from a science research-stage company advancing programs in the field of messenger RNA (mRNA), to an enterprise with a diverse clinical portfolio of vaccines and therapeutics across six modalities, a broad intellectual property portfolio in areas including mRNA and lipid nanoparticle formulation, and an integrated manufacturing plant that allows for both clinical and commercial production at scale and at unprecedented speed. Moderna maintains alliances with a broad range of domestic and overseas government and commercial collaborators, which has allowed for the pursuit of both groundbreaking science and rapid scaling of manufacturing. Most recently, Moderna’s capabilities have come together to allow the authorized use of one of the earliest and most-effective vaccines against the COVID-19 pandemic.
Moderna’s mRNA platform builds on continuous advances in basic and applied mRNA science, delivery technology and manufacturing, and has allowed the development of therapeutics and vaccines for infectious diseases, immuno-oncology, rare diseases, cardiovascular diseases and auto-immune diseases. Today, 24 development programs are underway across these therapeutic areas, with 13 programs having entered the clinic. Moderna has been named a top biopharmaceutical employer by Science for the past six years. To learn more, visit www.modernatx.com.
Forward Looking Statements
This press release contains forward-looking statements within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995, as amended, including regarding: the Company’s development of a vaccine against the novel coronavirus; plans for the supply and distribution of the COVID-19 Vaccine Moderna to Switzerland and the timing for such supply; the Company’s development of booster vaccines to protect against specific variants of the SARS-CoV-2 virus, and the protection provided by those boosters, and the safety and tolerability profile of those boosters. In some cases, forward-looking statements can be identified by terminology such as “will,” “may,” “should,” “could”, “expects,” “intends,” “plans,” “aims,” “anticipates,” “believes,” “estimates,” “predicts,” “potential “continue,” or the negative of these terms or other comparable terminology, although not all forward-looking statements contain these words. The forward-looking statements in this press release are neither promises nor guarantees, and you should not place undue reliance on these forward-looking statements because they involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties, and other factors, many of which are beyond Moderna’s control and which could cause actual results to differ materially from those expressed or implied by these forward-looking statements. These risks, uncertainties, and other factors include, among others: the fact that there has never been a commercial product utilizing mRNA technology approved for use; the fact that the rapid response technology in use by Moderna is still being developed and implemented; the safety, tolerability and efficacy profile of the Moderna COVID-19 Vaccine observed to date may change adversely in ongoing analyses of trial data or subsequent to commercialization; despite having ongoing interactions with the FDA or other regulatory agencies, the FDA or such other regulatory agencies may not agree with the Company’s regulatory approval strategies, components of our filings, such as clinical trial designs, conduct and methodologies, or the sufficiency of data submitted; Moderna may encounter delays in meeting manufacturing or supply timelines or disruptions in its distribution plans for the Moderna COVID-19 Vaccine; whether and when any biologics license applications and/or emergency use authorization applications may be filed and ultimately approved by regulatory authorities; potential adverse impacts due to the global COVID-19 pandemic such as delays in regulatory review, manufacturing and clinical trials, supply chain interruptions, adverse effects on healthcare systems and disruption of the global economy; and those other risks and uncertainties described under the heading “Risk Factors” in Moderna’s most recent Annual Report on Form 10-K filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and in subsequent filings made by Moderna with the SEC, which are available on the SEC’s website at www.sec.gov. Except as required by law, Moderna disclaims any intention or responsibility for updating or revising any forward-looking statements contained in this press release in the event of new information, future developments or otherwise. These forward-looking statements are based on Moderna’s current expectations and speak only as of the date hereof.
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