Moderna plans to offer Covid-19 vaccine with range of dosages after new deal with Swiss drugmaker Lonza

Moderna has said it will likely offer a range of vaccine dose levels in 2022 after a successful trial of a half-dose booster shot and a deal with drugmaker Lonza to provide ingredients for 300 million 50 microgram doses each year.

“We’re assuming that as of 2022, we are going to have a mix of dose levels on the market,” a spokeswoman for Moderna told Reuters on Wednesday, following the announcement that Swiss firm Lonza could provide enough ingredients for 300 million doses of Moderna’s Covid-19 jab at a reduced dosage. 

Moderna’s vaccine has been administered in a 100-microgram dose to date but following positive trial data, the company hopes to gain approval for a 50-microgram dose. 

Lonza’s Geleen site in the Netherlands will contribute to the supply of an additional 300 million doses of Moderna’s updated booster variant vaccine candidate per year at a 50-microgram dose. 

Combined with a previous deal with ROVI in Granada, Spain, Moderna expects to supply the equivalent of 600 million 50-microgram doses each year from production sites within the EU. 

The company has previously stated that a 50-microgram booster shot was sufficient to provide added immune response, even against the variants originating in Brazil and South Africa. 

In April, Moderna President Stephen Hoge said the company sees huge demand for Covid-19 vaccines in 2022, which underpinned its decision to produce up to 3 billion doses next year. 

A week previous, the company’s CEO, Stephane Bancel, predicted that there would actually be too much supply globally in 2022, noting: “Well, if anything that is a good problem to have in terms of dealing with the pandemic but it’s not a nice problem to have if you’re the one manufacturing the vaccine I guess.”

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