A Modern Vaccine (COVID-19) is seen at the LA Mission Homeless Shelter in Skid Row, Los Angeles, California, USA, on February 10, 2021.
Lucy Nicholson | Reuters
Modern said Thursday it expects to generate $ 18.4 billion in Covid-19 vaccine sales this year.
Releasing its fourth-quarter profits, Moderna also said its chief medical officer, Tal Zaks, will leave the company in late September. The company said it retained Russell Reynolds “to hire for a new OCP with global and commercial experience.”
Shares of Moderna rose 3.9% in premarket trading.
The news comes a day after the company said it expected to produce at least 700 million doses of Covid vaccine this year. He also said he expects to produce up to 1.4 billion doses of Covid vaccine by 2022.
Pfizer, which also has an authorized vaccine for use in the United States, said earlier this month that it expected to sell doses of about $ 15 billion this year.
Modern has an agreement with the federal government for 300 million doses and has shipped about 55 million doses to the US. It expects to complete delivery of the first 100 million doses in the United States by the end of the first quarter, the second 100 million doses. in late May and the third in August.
Modern, like other vaccine manufacturers, has been working quickly to meet the demand for shots that will hopefully help end the pandemic, which has infected more than 112 million people and killed at least 2.4 million, according to data compiled by Johns Hopkins University.
The company is in talks with the Food and Drug Administration about the proposal to fill its Covid vaccine vials with up to five additional doses to facilitate bottlenecks in manufacturing. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, one vial of the Modern Two vaccine contains 10 doses, enough to inoculate five people.
The company also said Thursday that it is in talks with the COVAX initiative, backed by the World Health Organization, to supply doses this year and in 2022.
The Moderna vaccine has been authorized by the FDA for use in people over 18 years of age. Clinical trial studies are incomplete in children, whose immune systems may respond differently than adults.
The company said Thursday it has completed enrollment of 3,000 participants in a clinical trial to test its vaccine in children ages 12-17.