European Commision Purchases an additional 15 million Moderna Bivalent COVID-19 Vaccines

On August 9, Moderna announced that they amended their contract with the European Commission (EC) to purchase Moderna’s COVID-19 Vaccines. In addition to switching contractually agreed doses to Moderna’s Omicron Bivalent Vaccines, the EC will buy an additional 15 million of the company’s vaccine. 

Related Article: FDA Panel Suggests Redesigning Vaccines to Target Omicron Variants, Pfizer & Sanofi Share Booster Updates

Moderna’s Most Recent Vaccine Protects against Omicron

Spikevax is the brand name of Moderna’s mRNA COVID-19 vaccine. Otherwise known under the codename mRNA-1273, the vaccine enters human cells and triggers them to produce a specific protein. The immune system detects the protein and creates antibodies upon its ejection from the cell.

Though mRNA-1273 has proven effective against common COVID-19 strains, it is less so against the Omicron strain. As a result, Moderna created two modified, bivalent vaccines. Bivalent vaccines mean that these vaccines simultaneously protect against two different antigens. In this case, that would be the more common strain and the Omicron strain. The bivalent COVID-19 vaccines contain an equal amount of each treatment. 

The bivalent boosters are known as mRNA-1273.214 and mRNA 1273.222. The former candidate combats the Omicron subvariant BA.1, while the latter focuses on the BA.4/5 strain. Both vaccines have shown clinical efficacy data, though they have yet to gain approval from the European Medicines Agency (EMA). 

Additional Vaccine Purchase Follows U.S. Trend

Earlier this year, Moderna made a similar deal with the United States government in July. The U.S. purchased 66 million bivalent COVID-19 Vaccines with funds from The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, the Administration for Strategic Preparedness and Response (ASPR), and the Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority (BARDA).

Similarly, Pfizer and BioNTech pledged to supply the U.S. government with an additional 105 million doses of their vaccine in June of this year. These vaccines also included capabilities to combat Omicron strains. 

However, in this case, the additional vaccine purchase of 15 million doses is more of an addendum to the deal. The main focus is the amendment of the contract between the EC and Moderna, changing the vaccines already agreed to be supplied and the newly purchased ones to the new bivalent versions. 

On the amendment, Stéphane Bancel, Moderna’s Chief Executive Officer, said, “This agreement highlights the EC’s trust in our mRNA platform and next-generation bivalent COVID-19 vaccines. Participating member states will now have access to Omicron-containing vaccine booster candidates, and protection against COVID-19, heading into the winter season.”

Pending approval by EMA, doses scheduled in July and August of the mRNA-1273 vaccine are delayed to a date later in 2022. In addition, all remaining agreed doses will convert to Omicron bivalent vaccines. 

This deal represents yet another step taken by Moderna and other biotech companies like it to continue to aid international governments in the fight against the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.

Related Article: Moderna to Supply 66 Million COVID-19 Boosters to US

Author

Max Heirich