Moderna vaccine order for 2022 hits $18.5 billion

The drug giant has also signed deals for expanding the deal by a further $3.5bn, including booster shots

Moderna says it has shipped 807 million vaccine doses in 2021. Reuters

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Moderna said it had signed agreements for $18.5 billion (£13.6bn) worth of Covid-19 vaccines for this year, along with options for a further $3.5bn (£2.5bn), including booster shots.

The pharmaceutical company in last November said the total product sales for 2022 could reach $22bn.

This was slightly higher than the average analyst estimate of $17bn, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.

The company said it had shipped 807 million vaccine doses in 2021.

Previously, it had said it would deliver between 700 million and 800 million doses.

The advance purchase agreements for 2022 are up from $17bn worth of commitments it had announced last year.

Analysts were expecting $19.3bn in Moderna Covid vaccine sales for 2022, according to a Bloomberg survey of analyst estimates.

After the figures were released in a statement by the drug giant on Monday, Moderna shares were up 0.2 per cent in pre-market trading in New York.

In January 2021, Moderna’s coronavirus vaccine was approved for use by the UK medicines regulator.

Last November, as a wave of Omicron crashed on to UK society, Moderna warned the highly transmissible variant could evade protection offered by its vaccine and others on the market.

The Moderna coronavirus vaccine is one of four approved for use in the UK and one of three on offer.

The AstraZeneca and Pfizer vaccines are also being put into people’s arms while the Janssen vaccine is not yet available in Britain, despite receiving approval.

The latest data available on UK vaccine orders show there are 77 million Moderna shots on order.

This is markedly less than the 189 million Pfizer doses and 100 million AstraZeneca shots that have been ordered, according to government data from December.

About 132 million shots of a Covid vaccine were administered to people in Britain in 2021.

Last October the Moderna vaccine was suspended for young people in Sweden, Norway and Finland as a precaution following reports of rare side effects.

Some people who had received the vaccine had developed myocarditis and pericarditis.

Myocarditis is a rare side effect of all mRNA vaccines, and is more commonly found in boys and young men compared with other sections of the population.

Data suggested it was more likely to occur after a second dose of Moderna had been administered, as opposed to a Pfizer shot.

This seems to apply regardless of which vaccine was given as the first dose.

Addressing a conference on Monday, Stephane Bancel. the chief executive of Moderna, said people aged 50 and above, those who were immuno-compromised or in other high-risk groups might require an annual booster of a Covid vaccine to acquire adequate protection against the virus.

The company said it was on track to invest between $2.5bn and $3bn in research and development this year.

Within a month it should have designated a country in which it would open a vaccine facility, it said.