Detail of the vaccine Moderna COVID-19.
Allen J. Schaben | Los Angeles Times | Getty Images
Moderna said on Monday that it received “positive feedback” from the Food and Drug Administration about its proposal to increase the number of doses of the Covid-19 vaccine in each of its vials.
A vial of Moderna’s double vaccine contains ten doses, enough to inoculate five people, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. CNBC reported last month that Moderna had asked the FDA for permission to fill its Covid-19 vaccine bottles with up to five additional doses to ease a manufacturing bottleneck.
In a prepared statement presented before a House hearing on Tuesday, Moderna President Stephen Hoge said the US agency gave the company “positive feedback on our proposal, and we are looking for a plan that could allow up to 15 doses are withdrawn from each vial. “
“This will allow us to produce and deliver more doses more quickly,” Hoge told the Energy and Commerce Committee, Subcommittee on Supervision and Investigations. “We will continue to collaborate with our manufacturing partners and the federal government to increase the efficiency of our production process, without compromising quality or safety. “
The revelation comes at a time when President Joe Biden is trying to accelerate the pace of vaccinations in the U.S. after a slower-than-expected implementation under former President Donald Trump, and states complain that they do not have enough doses.
Biden announced on February 11 that his government has secured agreements with Pfizer and Moderna for an additional 200 million doses of the Covid-19 vaccine, bringing the US total to 600 million. As the two authorized vaccines require two doses administered every three to four weeks, a total of 600 million doses would be sufficient to inoculate 300 million people. The Biden government expects all of this to happen by the end of July.
It is not clear whether the increase in doses per bottle is why Moderna now expects to be able to deliver 300 million doses by the end of July.
In December, the FDA said health workers could use extra doses of vials of Pfizer’s Covid-19 vaccine. These vials contained five doses, but some providers were able to extract a sixth or even seventh dose. As with Pfizer, some providers have also managed to extract an extra dose of Moderna’s vaccine using special syringes.