Close-up of the Moderna vaccine at the Park County Health Department’s COVID-19 Vaccine Clinic for seniors 80 and older on Jan. 28, 2021 in Livingston, Montana.
William Campbell | Getty images
Moderna, seeking to boost production of its Covid-19 vaccine, met with Nexus Pharmaceuticals to discuss production of the shot at the company’s new facility in Wisconsin, which has the capacity to process and finish 30 million doses per month. Replenish, sources with knowledge of the matter said.
The meeting between Moderna and the maker of special drugs took place on Tuesday, the sources said.
According to two sources, senior White House and administration officials, including David Kessler, chief science officer for Covid Response and Tim Manning, Covid-19 supply coordinator, facilitated introductions and discussions between Nexus, Moderna and Johnson & Johnson.
While President Joe Biden has said there would be enough vaccines for all adults in the United States by May, there could still be supply concerns later in the year, especially if people need a booster shot at some point to protect against virus variants that can circulate.
It remains unclear whether the meeting will result in a deal to produce vaccines at the Nexus plant, the sources said. Funding from the defense production bill will be essential for a deal to work, one source said.
“Moderna wants to produce more vaccines … and Nexus has the capacity to do it,” one source said.
Nexus, based in Illinois, does not currently manufacture Covid-19 vaccines, but has built capacity to ramp up production at their new Wisconsin facility, one source said.
The White House declined to comment on the meeting. Nexus and Moderna also declined comment.
On Tuesday, Moderna said it is on track to deliver 300 million doses to the United States by the end of July, in line with its commitments. Moderna delivered 45 million vaccines to US states in March.
Moderna’s CEO said on Wednesday that the company is unlikely to accelerate vaccine production significantly in the coming months, although it expects production to increase significantly by 2022.
The Biden government has previously negotiated agreements between rival drug manufacturers to boost production of Covid-19 vaccines.
In March, Biden announced that Merck & Co will help manufacture Johnson & Johnson’s one-time coronavirus vaccine.
Despite his best efforts, there have been significant setbacks.
For example, about 15 million doses of J & J’s vaccine were wasted due to contamination with ingredients from AstraZeneca’s shot at a Baltimore facility that produced both. That Emergent BioSolutions facility will now only produce the J&J recording.
Separately, U.S. federal health agencies on Tuesday recommended interrupting use of the J&J COVID-19 vaccine, while investigating six cases of rare brain blood clots in women under the age of 50 who received the injection.