US government is buying another 100 million doses of Moderna’s COVID-19 vaccine, bringing the total to 200 million

• The US government has ordered another 100 million doses of Moderna’s coronavirus vaccine, bringing the total to 200 million, the company announced Friday.
• If the vaccine receives emergency-use authorization from the FDA, Moderna plans to deliver 20 million doses by the end of the month, then the rest over the first six months of 2021.
• The US still has the option to purchase another 300 million doses from Moderna.
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The US government has agreed to purchase another 100 million doses of Moderna’s coronavirus vaccine, the company announced on Friday.

That’s on top of a $1.5 billion order placed in August for 100 million doses, bringing the total up to 200 million, according to a press release from Moderna. Since the vaccine is administered in two shots, that total is enough for 100 million people.

The government has also purchased 100 million doses of Pfizer and BioNTech’s COVID-19 vaccine, which could receive emergency-use authorization from the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) as early as Friday evening.

“We could be seeing people getting vaccinated Monday, Tuesday of next week,” Alex Azar, Secretary of Health and Human Services, said on “Good Morning America” Friday morning.

Azar’s statement followed an endorsement on Thursday from an independent panel of experts – more than 20 leading scientists and doctors – who reviewed data from the trial of Pfizer and BioNTech’s vaccine.

Moderna's vaccine is awaiting a similar panel review, scheduled for December 17. The FDA will then decide whether or not to grant emergency use authorization. In both cases, the agency is likely to follow the expert panel's advice.

Once its vaccine gets authorized, Moderna plans to deliver 20 million doses by the end of December, then distribute the rest of the first 100-million-dose order throughout January, February, and March. The additional doses purchased on Friday will be delivered in the second quarter of 2021, according to the press release. 

"Securing another 100 million doses from Moderna by June 2021 further expands our supply of doses across the Operation Warp Speed portfolio of vaccines," Azar said, according to the release. "This new federal purchase can give Americans even greater confidence we will have enough supply to vaccinate all Americans who want it by the second quarter of 2021."

The Moderna vaccine was codeveloped with the National Institutes of Health. In late-stage trials, it was found to be 94.5% effective at preventing symptomatic COVID-19.

Through Operation Warp Speed, the US still has the option to order up to 300 million more vaccine doses from Moderna and 500 million from Pfizer.