Moderna and UK sign agreement for additional doses of COVID-19 vaccine

Moderna has announced an amended supply agreement with the UK for an additional two million doses of its COVID-19 vaccine candidate on top of the already agreed upon five million doses.

Following the agreement for an additional supply of Moderna’s mRNA-1273, the UK has now secured seven million doses of the vaccine – enough for around 3.5 million people.

Earlier this month, Moderna announced that interim analysis from its phase 3 COVE study suggests that mRNA-1273 is 94.5% effective at preventing COVID-19.

The interim data is based on analysis of COVID-19 cases that were confirmed and adjudicated starting two weeks after the second dose of the mRNA-based vaccine within the COVE trial.

Preliminary data from this analysis included 95 cases – with 90 of these COVID-19 cases occurring in the placebo group and five in the vaccinated group – reflecting a point estimate of vaccine efficacy of 94.5%.

The analysis also included a concurrent review of the available safety data by the independent data safety monitoring board (DSMB), which did not report any significant safety concerns regarding the vaccine.

A further secondary endpoint analysed severe cases of COVID-19 cases within the study, with 11 observed, all of which occurred within the placebo group and none within the mRNA-1273 vaccinated arm.

“Every week, we are getting more positive news about the range of vaccines in development, and thanks to the work of our taskforce the UK has pre-ordered hundreds of millions of doses from those companies most advanced in their work,” said Health and Social Care Secretary Matt Hancock.

“With a wide range of vaccine candidates in our portfolio, we stand ready to deploy a vaccine should they receive approval from our medicines regulator,” he added.

The UK’s Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) started a rolling review of mRNA-1273  in October.

This means that the vaccine candidate will be reviewed on a rolling basis, with the MHRA accepting and considering new evidence as and when it becomes available.

So far, the UK has secured access to potential COVID-19 vaccine candidates from AstraZeneca, BioNTech/Pfizer, Novavax, Valneva, GlaxoSmithKline/Sanofi Pasteur and Janssen, as well as Moderna.

“Until all the necessary stages are completed and a vaccine has been approved for use by the medicine regulator, the MHRA, the public must continue to take necessary actions to keep themselves and their loved ones safe, including following the Hands, Face, Space guidance and other public health advice in line with the area they live in,” the government said in a statement yesterday.