The Philippines Buys 13 Million Doses of Moderna's COVID-19 Vaccine

Moderna announced a supply agreement with the Republic of the Philippines for 13 million doses of the COVID-19 Vaccine Moderna. Under the terms of this agreement, deliveries would begin in mid-2021. The Company stated in its press statement issued on March 6, 2021, 'it will work with local regulators to pursue necessary approvals before distribution.'

A separate agreement with the Philippine Government and the private sector to supply an additional 7 million doses is also anticipated.

Stéphane Bancel, Chief Executive Officer of Moderna, commented, “We appreciate the confidence in Moderna, and our mRNA platform demonstrated by the Government of the Philippines. We remain committed to making our vaccine available on every continent to help end this global pandemic.”

The COVID-19 Vaccine Moderna is not currently approved for use in the Philippines. 

The experimental mRNA vaccine prevents COVID-19 by encoding for a prefusion stabilized form of the Spike (S) protein co-developed by Moderna and investigators from NIAID’s Vaccine Research Center. In the USA, the Moderna COVID-19 Vaccine gained emergency authorization from the U.S. FDA in December 2020. There are no FDA-approved vaccines to prevent COVID‑19 as of March 8, 2021.

 Massachusetts-based Moderna has transformed from a science research-stage company advancing programs in the promising-but-still-unproven field of messenger RNA (mRNA) to an enterprise with its first medicine having treated millions of people, a diverse clinical portfolio of vaccines and therapeutics across six modalities, a broad intellectual property portfolio in areas including mRNA and lipid nanoparticle formulation, and an integrated manufacturing plant that allows for both clinical and commercial production at scale and unprecedented speed.