The UK Government has now booked a total of 7 million doses of a Covid-19 vaccine developed by the American biotech company Moderna, having just announced that it’s booked an additional 2 million doses to add to 5 million doses which it previously booked. The order for 2 million more doses notably comes after Moderna announced having recorded a  95% efficacy rate from the trial of its vaccine candidate.

Overall, the UK has now booked up to 357 million Covid-19 vaccine doses from 7 different companies. Moderna’s very own vaccine could start being delivered as early as spring 2021, still subject to approval from the UK’s Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA).

Moderna has said that it’s looking to produce between 500 million and 1 billion doses of its Covid vaccine each year beginning in 2021. The company has begun making arrangements with manufacturing partners in the US, Spain, and Switzerland.

Already, the US government earlier awarded a $1.5 billion contract for 100 million vaccine doses to Moderna, whose vaccine is based on the relatively new messenger RNA (mRNA) system. 

Along with Moderna, other biotech companies that have announced trial results of their Covid-19 vaccine candidates include Pfizer, which posted a 95% efficacy rate, and AstraZeneca, which posted an average efficacy rate of 70%. 

Notably, AstraZeneca has said that it may conduct another global trial of its vaccine candidate after having observed a manufacturing discrepancy.

Photo: UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson by UK Prime Minister is licensed under CC BY-NC-ND 2.0

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