Moderna announces plans to supply COVID-19 vaccines to African Union

Moderna Inc. announced Monday it had a new memorandum of understanding to make up to 110 million doses of the Moderna COVID-19 vaccine available to the African Union.

The company said it is prepared to deliver the first 15 million doses in the fourth quarter of 2021, with 35 million doses delivered in the first quarter of 2022 and up to 60 million doses delivered in the second quarter of 2022. All of the doses will be offered at Moderna’s lowest tiered price, in line with the company’s global access commitments.

“We are pleased to be able to supply our vaccine to the African Union through this agreement, which was facilitated in part by the White House team. This is the first step in our long-term partnership with the African Union. We would like to thank the African Union and the White House for helping to make this possible,” said Stéphane Bancel, Chief Executive Officer of Moderna. “We believe our vaccine can play an important role in addressing the needs of low-income countries given its combination of high Phase 3 efficacy against COVID-19, strong durability in the real-world evidence, and superior storage and handling conditions. We recognize that access to COVID-19 vaccines continues to be a challenge in many parts of the world, and we remain committed to helping to protect as many people as possible around the globe.”

The agreement is in addition to Moderna’s agreement with COVAX for up to 500 million doses of the vaccine through 2022. The company said it is also working on plans to fill doses of the vaccine in Africa as early as 2023, in parallel to building an mRNA vaccine manufacturing facility in Africa. Moderna recently announced that it would be investing up to $500 million to plan to build a facility in Africa to produce up to 500 million doses of the vaccine each year.