(Reuters) – Moderna Inc. said Monday it proposes to fill vials with additional doses of the COVID-19 vaccine to ease the crisis in manufacturing as the company approaches manufacturing nearly a million doses a day.
“The company proposes to fill vials with additional doses of vaccine, up to 15 doses compared to the current 10 doses,” Moderna said in an emailed statement.
“Modern should have more discussions with the FDA to ensure the comfort of the agency with this approach before implementing it,” the company said, referring to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.
Moderna President Stephen Hoge said in the statement that the additional doses would help address capacity constraints, noting that “beyond the amount of pharmaceutical product available, there are how many vials you can fill in a period of time. determined time “.
CNBC reported Friday that Moderna had requested permission from the FDA to fill its COVID-19 vaccine vials with up to five additional doses.
The U.S. distribution of Moderna’s COVID-19 vaccine began in December after the FDA’s emergency use authorization, making it the second COVID-19 vaccine to receive approval in the United States.
The FDA told Reuters in December that additional doses of vials of Pfizer Inc.’s COVID-19 vaccine could be used after pharmacists released vaccine doses due to labeling confusion.
As of Monday morning, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention had administered 32,222,402 doses of COVID-19 vaccines and distributed 49,936,450 doses.
Reports from Kanishka Singh to Bengaluru; Edited by Leslie Adler