(Reuters) – Immunity to Moderna Inc’s COVID-19 vaccine should last at least a year, the company said at the JP Morgan Healthcare conference Monday.
The drug company said it was confident that the messenger RNA (mRNA) technology it used would be well suited to deploy a vaccine based on the new variant of the coronavirus that has emerged in a handful of countries.
The company’s vaccine, mRNA-1273, uses synthetic mRNA to mimic the surface of the coronavirus and teach the immune system to recognize and neutralize it.
Moderna said in December it would conduct tests to confirm the vaccine’s activity against each strain. (reut.rs/3brXn6w)
The company said Monday it expects to deliver between 600 million and 1 billion doses of its vaccine by 2021 and forecasts vaccine-related sales of $ 11.7 billion for the year, based on purchase agreements signed with governments.
“The team is very comfortable with the track record we now have … that we are on track to deliver at least 600 million doses,” said Chief Executive Officer Stéphane Bancel.
Reporting by Trisha Roy in Bengaluru; Editing by Shounak Dasgupta