Moderna (NSDQ:MRNA) has announced that the European Commission has reserved an additional 150 million doses of its COVID-19 vaccine for delivery in 2022.
To date, the European Commission has reserved 460 million Moderna vaccine doses.
The new deal gives the European Commission the ability to purchase new COVID-19 vaccines.
The company is currently testing various booster options, including the use of its existing mRNA-1273 vaccine. In addition, it is developing a vaccine known as mRNA-1273.351 based on the B.1.351 variant that first emerged in South Africa.
Interim data from a Phase 2 trial in the U.S. found that both mRNA-1273 and mRNA-1273.351 led to increased neutralizing antibody titer levels in response to the B.1.351 and P.1 variants. The mRNA-1273.351 appears to be more effective at generating an immune response to those viral lineages. The P.1 variant is also known as the “Gamma Variant.”
Moderna also recently announced that the…