India's likely to get access to Moderna's coronavirus vaccine via COVAX facility

MUMBAI: India is likely to get access to Moderna's Covid-19 vaccine through the COVAX facility, an official aware of the development told ET.

Since Moderna received funding from the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations (CEPI), which is a part of COVAX, India may get doses of the vaccine.

The COVAX facility aims to distribute 2 billion Covid-19 vaccines to low- and middle-income countries by the end of 2021.

In January this year, CEPI gave Moderna $1million to develop its messenger RNA vaccine against the Covid-19 virus and because of this partial funding, the US biotechnology company has to supply doses to middle- and low-income countries.

CEPI was created at the World Economic Forum in 2016 to develop, manufacture and stockpile vaccines.


Moderna has no tie-up with Indian manufacturers and the first supply commitment of the company is to the US government. Moderna's mRNA technology is also used by Pfizer, which said last week that its candidate reported 90% efficacy.

However, unlike the stringent temperature requirement of -70C needed for the Pfizer product, the Moderna vaccine can be stored at fridge temperatures of 2C to 8C for 30 days or -20C for up to six months.

India has not signed advance purchase agreements with global or domestic vaccine makers yet, including Moderna.