Moderna Inc. has announced a supply agreement with the Ministry of Public Health of Qatar for mRNA-1273, Moderna’s vaccine candidate against COVID-19, to support the Ministry’s ongoing efforts to secure early access to a safe and effective COVID-19 vaccine for the people of Qatar.

The Phase 1 interim analysis showed that mRNA-1273 was generally well-tolerated across all age groups and induced rapid and strong immune responses against SARS-CoV-2. mRNA-1273 is currently being studied in a Phase 3 randomized, 1:1 placebo-controlled trial of 30,000 participants at the 100 µg dose level in the US On Thursday, October 22, Moderna completed enrolment of the Phase 3 COVE study. For more information about the COVE study, mRNA-1273 currently is not approved for use by any regulatory body.

US based firm Moderna is scaling up global manufacturing to be able to deliver approximately 500 million doses per year and possibly up to 1 billion doses per year, beginning in 2021.

Over the past nine years, Moderna has invested in creating and developing a novel platform for designing and manufacturing a new class of mRNA-based vaccines. The investments in this proprietary platform have enabled Moderna to expeditiously create, manufacture and clinically develop mRNA-1273 to potentially address the current COVID-19 pandemic.