A panel of FDA advisers will vote on Tuesday whether to authorize rival Pfizer and BioNTech's COVID-19 vaccine for use in children aged five to 11 years
"Our number one priority as a company right now is to bring to market a Pan-respiratory annual booster vaccine, which we plan to always customize and upgrade," Chief Executive Officer Stéphane Bancel says
Japan on Thursday suspended the use of 1.63 million doses shipped to 863 vaccination centres nationwide, more than a week after the domestic distributor, Takeda Pharmaceutical, received reports of contaminants in some vials
Data was reported from blood serum from eight participants obtained one week after they received the second dose of the vaccine in an early-stage trial.
Amazon saw over $5.6 billion in total online sales in the United States on the first day of its Prime promotional event, according to Adobe Digital Economy Index.
The Biden administration earlier this month announced plans for how it will allocate 25 million shots and said it would allocate the remainder by the end of June.
The United States has now ordered a total of 500 million Moderna vaccine doses to date, with 110 million set for delivery in the fourth quarter and 90 million to be delivered in the first quarter of 2022.
Moderna, which has supplied 217 million doses of its shot to the US government as of Monday.
The development comes weeks after rival Pfizer Inc and its German partner BioNTech SE sought full approval for their COVID-19 vaccine in the United States.
Moderna said it will continue to submit data to the US Food and Drug Administration on a rolling basis over the coming weeks with a request for a priority review.
Vietnam has placed orders for more vaccines from several suppliers and received around 2.9 million doses from its purchases and via the international COVAX scheme.
Vietnam has registered 6,396 coronavirus cases so far, half of which were recorded in the latest outbreak.
Swiss Health Minister Alain Berset said about 15 of the staff identified by the government for the Lonza assignment in Visp could start this month.
"We started a programme immediately to find specialists," Berset told a news conference in Bern. "We've found 75 people in the federal administration, also in the universities."
It has been trying to speed up the rollout of jabs after it was stalled by supply hold-ups in Europe and concerns about blood clots tied to the AstraZeneca shot.
The deal also includes the supply of 15 million doses of Moderna's updated variant booster vaccine candidate to be delivered in 2022, the company said.
Moderna said an initial analysis of a study in adolescents aged 12-17 years showed an efficacy rate of 96% for its vaccine.
The company has also been working on a new version that could extend the time the vaccine can be stored in refrigerator temperatures, making it easier to distribute, especially in lower-income countries.
The company and the Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority (BARDA) had initially signed a $483 million deal for the vaccine in July last year, which was later increased to about $1 billion.
As of March 31, 2021, the remaining available funding net of revenue earned under the BARDA Contract, prior to the increased payment, was $317 million, Moderna said in a regulatory filing.
"Next year there is going to be way too many vaccines for people on the planet," he said.
He added that Moderna was working hard to have a booster vaccine against COVID-19 variants approved by the northern hemisphere late summer or early autumn.
Zaks, speaking to the Economic Club of New York, said he expects the booster shots the company is testing to show a higher level of protection against variants of the coronavirus.
Young people have been less likely to suffer severe disease and more likely to have asymptomatic infection, allowing them to unwittingly transmit COVID-19 to others.
