By
Tolu Ajiboye
December 13th, 2023
Besides the European Commission that just inked a deal with Moderna, the US ranks as one that has shown the highest commitment to both the vaccine development and its acquisition upon approval.
The shares of the American biotechnology company Moderna Inc (NASDAQ: MRNA) closed 10.78% higher on Wednesday following news that the COVID-19 vaccine developer has inked a deal for the supply of its vaccine mRNA-1273 with the European Commission. As reported by Investor’s Business Daily, through the deal, the European Commission is bulled to receive about 80 million doses of the Moderna vaccine that has been confirmed to have up to 95% efficacy in its late-stage clinical trials.
The European Commission may order for more of the vaccines to make up about 160 million doses of the vaccines billed to be supplied.
“We appreciate the confidence the European Commission has demonstrated in our mRNA (messenger RNA) vaccine platform including (the drug called) mRNA-1273 in their portfolio of vaccines,” Moderna Chief Executive Stephane Bancel said in a written statement.
Moderna’s (MRNA) advances in its COVID-19 vaccine development have caused the shares of the Massachusetts-based firm to skyrocket in 2020 with the stock being up by 457% on a year-to-date basis. Moderna’s vaccine has a comparative advantage to that being developed by the duo of Pfizer Inc (NYSE: PFE) and BioNTech SE (NASDAQ: BNTX) in terms of the storage temperature differences.
Per the temperature difference, Coinspeaker reported earlier that while the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine requires a storage temperature of minus 70 degrees Celsius, Moderna’s vaccine requires a fairer storage temperature of 2-8 degrees celsius for 7 days and a distribution temperature of minus 20 degrees celsius. This obvious advantage will be a major point being considered by nations to narrow down potential COVID-19 vaccine developers to work with from this point onward.
Moderna (MRNA) stock added $10.62 on Wednesday to close at $109.18 per share. After hours, the stock gained another 3.83% to reach the level of $113.35.
MRNA COVID-19 Vaccine Already Have Recorded Orders from Nations
As every nation is plagued with the coronavirus pandemic, so also are the countries seeking to get a hold of any widely approved vaccine, even on an Emergency Use Authorization basis for use to stop the pandemic that has remarkably changed people’s lives.
Besides the European Commission that just inked a deal with Moderna, the US ranks as one that has shown the highest commitment to both the vaccine development and the acquisition upon approval. In figure terms, the US government-funded Moderna with about $1 billion, and through the Operation Warp Speed program, the US Government has paid for the supply of 100 million doses of the vaccine should its yet to be filed EUA with the FDA gets approved. The US government also has as part of its COVID-19 vaccine response the right to request up to 400 million more vaccine doses.
Moderna believes it is up to the task to commence a prompt distribution of the vaccine once the FDA gives a green light. The company noted that it can ramp up supply to about 500 million doses and as much as 1 billion doses come 2021.