Washington (AFP)
President Donald Trump on Tuesday announced a $ 1.5 billion contract for the delivery of 100 million doses of the experimental vaccine from American biotech Moderna, the sixth contract of its kind since May.
“Tonight I am pleased to announce that we have reached an agreement with Moderna for the manufacture and delivery of 100 million doses of their candidate coronavirus vaccine. The federal government will own these vaccine doses, we are purchasing them. "Donald Trump said at a White House press conference.
Moderna, partner of the American National Institutes of Health (NIH), is leading one of three Western projects to have started the final phase of clinical trials on thousands and ultimately 30,000 volunteers, in July, with the alliances Oxford / AstraZeneca and Pfizer / BioNTech. Preliminary results from the first phase, on a small number of people, showed that his vaccine generated an immune response.
We should not know until the end of the year at the earliest whether the Moderna / NIH vaccine is safe and effective, according to Dr.Anthony Fauci, director of the institute managing the clinical trial, but Donald Trump has said he hopes for more results before the presidential election of November 3.
The deal brings US public investment in Moderna, a biotech company founded less than a decade ago that has never created a vaccine to date, to $ 2.48 billion.
No other company or pharmaceutical group has received so much money from Washington in the vaccine race.
The deal with Moderna also includes an option for an additional 400 million doses, according to statements from the company and the Health Department.
"We are ready to quickly produce 100 million doses as soon as the vaccine is approved, and up to 500 million soon after, we will therefore have 600 million doses," Donald Trump also said, citing significantly different figures.
The Trump administration is at least $ 10.9 billion spent on vaccine development and production. It had previously purchased 100 million doses from each of the following companies: Johnson & Johnson, Novavax, Pfizer and Sanofi, and 300 million doses from AstraZeneca, for a total of 800 million doses to date.
© 2020 AFP