A Modern vaccine (COVID-19) was seen at the LA Mission’s homeless shelter on Skid Row in Los Angeles, California, USA, on February 10, 2021.
Lucy Nicholson | Reuters
Moderna said on Thursday that it expects to generate $ 18.4 billion in sales with its Covid-19 vaccine this year.
In releasing its fourth quarter results, Moderna also said that its medical director, Tal Zaks, will leave the company at the end of September. The company said it hired Russell Reynolds “to recruit a new CMO with commercial and global experience”.
Moderna’s shares rose 3.9% in the pre-market.
The news comes a day after the company announced that it hoped to produce at least 700 million doses of the Covid vaccine this year. He also said he hopes to produce up to 1.4 billion doses of the Covid vaccine by 2022.
Pfizer, which also has a vaccine authorized for use in the United States, said earlier this month that it hoped to sell about $ 15 billion in doses this year.
Moderna has an agreement with the federal government for 300 million doses and has already shipped around 55 million doses to the United States. She expects to complete delivery of the first 100 million doses to the United States by the end of the first quarter, the second 100 million doses by the end of May and the third in August.
Moderna, like other vaccine manufacturers, has been working quickly to meet demand for vaccines that hopefully help end the pandemic, which has infected more than 112 million people and killed at least 2.4 million, according to data compiled by Johns Hopkins University.
The company is in talks with the Food and Drug Administration over a proposal to fill its Covid vaccine bottles with up to five additional doses to ease a manufacturing bottleneck. A vial of Moderna’s double vaccine contains 10 doses, enough to inoculate five people, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
The company also said on Thursday that it is in negotiations with the COVAX initiative, supported by the World Health Organization, to provide doses this year and in 2022.
Moderna’s vaccine has been authorized by the FDA for use in people aged 18 and over. Clinical studies are incomplete for children, whose immune systems may respond differently than adults.
The company said on Thursday that it had completed enrollment of 3,000 participants in a clinical trial that tests its vaccine in children 12 to 17 years old.