Moderna still sees having 20M COVID-19 vaccine doses in U.S. by end of 2020

Moderna provided an update on the clinical development and production of mRNA-1273, its vaccine candidate against COVID-19. Today, a letter to the editor was published in the New England Journal of Medicine reporting that participants in the Phase 1 study of mRNA-1273, its COVID-19 vaccine candidate, retained high levels of neutralizing antibodies through 119 days following first vaccination. The study was led by the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, part of the National Institutes of Health. Author Alicia T. Widge M.D. of Vaccine Research Center, NIAID, NIH and others summarized that "mRNA-1273 produced high levels of binding and neutralizing antibodies that declined slightly over time, as expected, but they remained elevated in all participants three months after the booster vaccination." These results were consistent across all age cohorts (18-55, 56-70 and 71+). The authors continued, "Although correlates of protection against SARS-CoV-2 infection in humans are not yet established, these results show that despite a slight expected decline in titers of binding and neutralizing antibodies, mRNA-1273 has the potential to provide durable humoral immunity." They also reported that, "No serious adverse events were noted in the trial, no prespecified trial-halting rules were met, and no new adverse events that were considered by the investigators to be related to the vaccine occurred after day 57." Moderna also re-affirmed its expectation of having approximately 20 million doses available in the U.S. by the end of 2020. Additionally, the company expects to have between 100 million and 125 million doses available globally in the first quarter of 2021, with 85-100 million of those available in the U.S. and 15-25 million of those available outside of the U.S. These expected first quarter doses are inclusive within the 500 million to up to 1 billion doses that the company expects to manufacture globally in 2021.