BRIEF—Trump Admin buys 100 million more doses of Moderna's COVID-19 investigational vaccine

The Trump Administration, through the US Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) and Department of Defense (DoD), will purchase an additional 100 million doses of the COVID-19 vaccine candidate, called mRNA-1273, from Moderna.

If authorized by the US Food and Drug Administration for emergency use as outlined in agency guidance, doses of the vaccine will begin shipping immediately.

The vaccine would be provided at no cost to Americans.

Vaccine administration costs for private-sector administration partners will be covered by healthcare payers: private insurance, Medicare or Medicaid, and an HHS program to cover COVID-19 costs for the uninsured which is reimbursing the provider at Medicare rates from the provider relief fund.

Moderna is the second company to apply for FDA emergency use authorization of a coronavirus vaccine that uses messenger RNA (mRNA), and the FDA has scheduled a Vaccines and Related Biological Products Advisory Committee meeting December 17 to review the company’s request.