Moderna increases 2021 minimum Covid vaccine production by 20% to 600 million doses

Moderna is increasing its production of Covid-19 vaccines this year, increasing the minimum number of doses it expects to make by 20% to 600 million, the company said on Monday.

The company said it was working to produce up to 1 billion doses of its Covid-19 vaccine this year. The United States is on track to obtain 100 million doses of the Moderna vaccine by the end of March and an additional 100 million by June, the Massachusetts-based company said in a statement.

The United States Food and Drug Administration granted emergency clearance for Moderna’s Covid-19 vaccine to people 18 years of age and older in the United States in December and began the initial rollout of the drug.

The federal government has agreed to purchase 200 million doses of the Moderna vaccine with the possibility of obtaining an additional 300 million doses, the company said.

Moderna’s Covid-19 vaccine, which uses new mRNA technology and requires two doses given four weeks apart, has also been approved in Canada for people 18 years of age and older. The company has agreed to provide Canada with 40 million doses of its vaccine with the option of providing an additional 16 million.

“Our effectiveness in providing early supply to the US and Canadian governments and our ability to increase baseline production estimates for 2021 are both signs that our ramp-up of mRNA vaccine production is a success,” said Moderna’s technical operations manager, Juan Andres.

The U.S. government, as part of the Trump administration’s Operation Warp Speed, has said it will distribute just under 6 million doses of the Moderna vaccine after clearance for emergency use of the FDA.

The rollout of the vaccine in the country has been slower than officials initially expected. So far, the United States has distributed just over 13 million doses of the vaccine, but has administered only 4.2 million “shots,” according to the latest data updated Saturday from the Centers for United States Disease Control and Prevention. Authorities aimed to vaccinate 20 million people with the two-dose Covid-19 vaccines from Pfizer and Moderna by the end of December.

Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar defended the operation’s vaccine distribution Monday on ABC’s “Good Morning America.” He said there was a lag between when doses are first made available, ordered by states and then delivered, which has been slowed by the holidays.

However, the United States has seen “rapid uptake” of the vaccine in recent days, Azar said.

“What we said our goal was, was actually to have 20 million first doses available in December. These are available, “Azar said. It is not clear what Azar meant when he said the doses are” available “since only 13 million were distributed across America on Saturday morning.