“This evening I’m pleased to announce that we have reached an agreement with Moderna to manufacture and deliver 100 million doses of their coronavirus vaccine candidate. The federal government will own these vaccine doses, we’re buying them,” President Donald Trump announced at a White House press briefing on Tuesday.
The deal is valued at up to $1.525 billion for the company to manufacture and deliver 100 million doses of its vaccine candidate. The $1.525 billion includes “incentive payments for timely delivery of the product.”
“The U.S. government has announced that consistent with its commitment to free access to COVID-19 vaccines, Americans will receive mRNA-1273 at no cost for the vaccine itself,” Moderna announced in a release. “As is customary with government-purchased vaccines, healthcare professionals could charge for the cost of administering the vaccine.”
Under the agreement, the U.S. government will also have the option to purchase another 400 million doses of the vaccine candidate from Moderna.
The U.S. government previously awarded the company up to $955 million to fund its research, bringing the total funding for early access to mRNA-1273 to up to $2.48 billion.
Trump said that the administration has also secured partnerships with Johnson and Johnson, Sanofi, and GlaxoSmithKline to support the large scale manufacturing of the vaccine candidates.
“Three vaccine candidates are now in phase 3 trials already, the final stage of clinical trials. We are investing in the development and manufacture of the top six vaccine candidates to ensure rapid delivery,” Trump said. “The military is ready to go. They’re ready to deliver a vaccine to Americans as soon as one is fully approved by the [Food and Drug Administration] and we’re moving very close to that approval.”
The deals are part of the U.S. government’s Operation Warp Speed—a national effort to quickly develop and deliver a safe and effective vaccine and therapeutics to combat the CCP (Chinese Communist Party) virus, also known as the novel coronavirus. The operation involves partnerships between the U.S. government, the scientific community, and the private sector.
“Under Operation Warp Speed, we’ve shaved years off of the time that it takes to develop a vaccine and we’ve done it while maintaining the FDA gold standard for safety,” Trump said in a statement.
With the exception of its deal with AstraZeneca, which offered a lower price per drug in exchange for upfront research and development costs, all the deals price COVID-19 vaccines between $20 to $42 for a two-dose course of treatment.
