The Food and Drug Administration agreed Friday to allow pharmaceutical manufacturer Moderna to increase the coronavirus vaccine formula in each ampoule by up to 40 percent, according to The New York Times.
Sources told the Times that the move could allow the company to include up to 14 doses in each vial of the vaccine instead of the current 10 doses, which would increase the country’s total vaccine supply by about 20%.
“It would be a big step forward,” Dr. Moncef Slaoui, the scientific leader of the Trump administration’s program to develop a vaccine, told the Times. “I think it will have a short-term impact.”
A company spokesman declined to comment to the newspaper about his talks with regulators.
Earlier this week, the Biden administration announced an agreement to purchase another 100 million doses of Moderna vaccine, which has provided the government with 41 million doses so far.
“We appreciate the confidence the US government has shown in our COVID-19 vaccine,” Moderna CEO Stéphane Bancel said in a press release. “We continue to expand our production capacity, both inside and outside the United States. Our goal is to bring our vaccine to as many people as possible around the world to help end this pandemic. It is encouraging and humiliating to know that over 22 million Americans have already been protected with the Moderna vaccine. ”
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