Moderna secures £1.74bn deal to supply US government with updated COVID-19 vaccine

Moderna has announced it has secured a deal with the US government to supply 66 million doses of its COVID-19 vaccine booster updated for the Omicron subvariant for use in an autumn and winter campaign. The company will receive up to £1.74bn for the manufacture and delivery of the doses of mRNA-1273.222, a bivalent booster candidate containing Moderna’s COVID-19 vaccine Spikevax plus the Omicron BA.4/5 string mRNA. The US government will also have the option to purchase up to an additional 234 million doses. Commenting on the deal, Stéphane Bancel, chief executive officer of Moderna, said: 'We are pleased to extend our successful collaboration with the US government. Moderna's mRNA platform is enabling us to rapidly create mRNA-1273.222, a bivalent vaccine that specifically targets Omicron subvariants BA.4 and BA.5, the most prevalent variants of concern in the US today