By Kanishka Singh
(Reuters) – Moderna Inc said on Monday that it is proposing to fill vials with additional doses of the COVID-19 vaccine to alleviate a manufacturing crisis as the company approaches the manufacture of nearly one million doses a day.
“The company is proposing to fill vials with additional doses of vaccine, up to 15 doses versus the current 10 doses,” Moderna said in an e-mailed statement.
“Moderna would need further discussions with the FDA to ensure the agency’s comfort with this approach before implementing,” said the company, referring to the US Food and Drug Administration.
Moderna President Stephen Hoge said in the statement that the additional doses would help to deal with capacity restrictions, noting that “in addition to the amount of medicine available, there is the number of bottles you can fill in a given period of time” .
CNBC reported on Friday that Moderna had asked the FDA for permission to fill its vials of COVID-19 vaccine with up to five additional doses.
The distribution of Moderna’s COVID-19 vaccine in the United States began in December after the FDA’s emergency use authorization, making it the second COVID-19 vaccine to receive approval in the United States.
The FDA told Reuters in December that extra doses of vials of Pfizer Inc’s COVID-19 vaccine could be used after reports of vaccine doses being dropped by pharmacists due to labeling confusion.
On Monday morning, the United States Centers for Disease Control and Prevention administered 32,222,402 doses of COVID-19 vaccines and distributed 49,936,450 doses.
(Reporting by Kanishka Singh in Bengaluru; Editing by Leslie Adler)
Originally published