African Union To Buy Up To 110m Moderna Doses

The African Union plans to buy up to 110 million doses of the Covid-19 vaccine from Moderna Inc.<br />Moderna is prepared to deliver the first 15 million doses to Africa later this year as part of an agreement facilitated by the White House.<br />An additional 35 million doses will be delivered in the first quarter of 2022 and up to 60 million doses in the second quarter.<br />The company is also working on plans to allow it to fill doses of its Covid-19 vaccine in Africa as early as 2023, in parallel to building an mRNA vaccine manufacturing facility in Africa.<br />Stéphane Bancel, the chief executive of Moderna says they believe the vaccine can play an important role in addressing the needs of low-income countries given its combination of efficacy against Covid-19, strong durability in the real-world evidence, and superior storage and handling conditions.