The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has granted Moderna permission to increase the number of doses of COVID-19 vaccine per vial from 10 to 14, the New York Times reports.
Moderna did not confirm approval on Friday, but told Fox News that it is currently in talks with the FDA about a “potential increase in filling volumes, allowing additional doses to be withdrawn from each vial delivered.”
One of the biggest constraints of Modern’s production capacity is the number of bottles that can be filled.
“To better maximize resources as well as maximize opportunities to deliver more doses in each market faster, Moderna has proposed filling vials with up to 15 doses of vaccine compared to the previous 10 doses,” said one carrier. spokesman for Fox News on Friday.
The FDA said Friday it could not comment on talks with a manufacturer.
“Generally speaking, any change of a [Emergency Use Authorization] must be requested by the company and include data to support the requested change and would be authorized by a letter of approval or retransmission of the letter of authorization, which will be posted on the FDA website, ”a spokesman said. of the FDA for Fox News.
Modern currently offers about half of America’s vaccine supply. As the increased number of doses per vial would not require different vials than those currently in use, it would be an easy way to increase the number of doses available. The change in production will take two to three months to implement.
President Joe Biden said Thursday that the United States is about to deliver more than 600 million doses of COVID-19 vaccine between Modern and Pfizer by the end of July, enough to completely vaccinate almost every American.
“Just this afternoon, we signed the final contracts for another 100 million Modern vaccines and another 100 million Pfizer vaccines,” Biden said Thursday at the National Institutes of Health. “We can also raise delivery dates with another 200 million vaccines by the end of July, faster than we expected.”
The FDA is currently considering an application for authorization for emergency use by a third drug company, Johnson & Johnson, for the COVID-19 vaccine.
Moderna is contracted to deliver 300 million US doses and another 341.5 million doses to countries around the world.
To date, 69,014,725 doses have been distributed and 48,410,558 doses have been administered in the United States, according to the CDC.
Modern’s extensive production capacity comes as COVID-19 variants continue to spread rapidly throughout the country.