With the great vaccine race largely behind us, the focus has now shifted to the arguably greater challenge of distribution.
As of Friday, January 6th, there have been over 17 million doses of the COVID-19 vaccine administered within the United States. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, over 5 million people in the United States have received a dose of the COVID-19 vaccine. However, this is short of a federal goal to vaccinate 20 million recipients before the end of 2020.
Data Source: Center for Disease Control and Prevention | Distribution of COVID-19 vaccine in The United States as of 1/7/2021.
Globally, 37 countries have administered the vaccine at a record-setting pace, marking a turning point in the pandemic at a time when deaths and cases continue to set records. More than 10 billion doses of the COVID-19 vaccine have been pre-ordered.
In addition to Moderna and Pfizer, vaccine developers who have already reported promising phase III trial results will make enough doses to vaccinate more than one-third of the world’s population by the end of 2021. For the remaining two thirds, it’s likely that some will be waiting until 2023 or 2024 for vaccination, according to estimates from the Duke Global Health Innovation Center.
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Takeaways from this week:
- Moderna is on track to deliver up to one billion doses of its COVID-19 vaccine in 2021.
- The United Kingdom government exercised its option to purchase an additional 10 million doses of the Moderna COVID-19 Vaccine on 1/7.
- Israel’s PM says every Israeli citizen over age 16 will be vaccinated for COVID-19 by the end of March 2021.
- Swiss logistics company Kuhne + Nagel (SWX: KNIN) will provide distribution and storage of Moderna’s COVID-19 vaccine globally.
- Spain will receive 600,000 doses of Moderna Inc’s COVID-19 vaccine within the coming six weeks.
- Colombia has agreed to buy 10 million doses each of the Pfizer-BioNTech and AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccines and nine million from Janssen.
- Moderna will provide 40 million doses to the Republic of Korea.
Pfizer
Corporate IT Update – 1/7/2021
Israel’s PM says every Israeli citizen over age 16 will be vaccinated for COVID-19 by the end of March 2021. The Prime Minister of Israel, Benjamin Netanyahu, has said he needs just 12 more weeks to vaccinate the entire country, CNN reported on Friday.
This follows the reaching of an agreement with US pharmaceutical company Pfizer that will speed up deliveries into Israel of Pfizer’s COVID-19 vaccine.
The first deliveries of COVID-19 Vaccine Moderna to European countries from Moderna’s dedicated non-US supply chain are expected to begin next week, the company stated, also noting that the EMA had exercised its option for a total of 160 million doses.
On December 21, the Pfizer (NYSE: PFE) and BioNTech (Nasdaq: BNTX) COVID-19 vaccine Comirnaty (BNT162b2) was granted conditional marketing authorization by the European Commission, on the recommendation of the EMA.
The President of Colombia, Ivan Duque, has stated that the country’s food and drug regulator, the National Institute of Food and Drug Surveillance (Invima), authorized the emergency use of Pfizer Inc and BioNTech SE’s COVID-19 vaccine.
Colombia has agreed to buy 10 million doses each of the Pfizer-BioNTech and AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccines, as well as nine million from Janssen. It has also secured 20 million vaccine doses via the World Health Organisation-backed COVAX mechanism.
Frontline health workers have questioned the feasibility of Boris Johnson’s ambition to vaccinate the most vulnerable Britons by mid-February, suggesting that more needs to be done to ensure there is a big enough workforce to meet the target.
Another professional body, the National Pharmacy Association, said there had been “widespread and growing” interest in joining the Covid inoculation program among pharmacies since the approval of the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine. Its easier storage requirements, compared with the BioNTech/Pfizer version, meant many more chemists were now capable of offering vaccinations.
With India set to distribute Covid-19 vaccines, Thermo King, by Trane Technologies, whose cold chain products are used by FedEX and UPS to deliver Pfizer vaccine in the US, has launched its expanded portfolio of cold chain solutions in India. These cold chain solutions can keep vaccines at temperatures from a range of +25° C to as low as -70° C.
The company’s advanced cold chain technologies will help address the unique challenges of Covid-19 vaccine distribution in India, whose large population is spread across vast and varied geographies, from densely populated cities to far-flung rural communities.
France has already received 500,000 COVID-19 vaccine shots developed by America’s Pfizer and Germany’s BioNTech, and other 580,000 jabs will be delivered on Wednesday, according to the minister. It has ordered some 200 million doses from different pharmaceutical companies.
Moderna
The United Kingdom government has also exercised its option to purchase an additional 10 million doses of the COVID-19 Vaccine Moderna, bringing its confirmed order commitment to 17 million doses. The first deliveries of the COVID-19 Vaccine Moderna to the UK from Moderna’s dedicated non-U.S. supply chain are expected to commence early in 2021.
The UK is the fifth jurisdiction to authorize COVID-19 Vaccine Moderna, following the United States on December 18, 2020, Canada on December 23, 2020, Israel on January 4, 2021 and the European Union on January 6, 2021. Additional authorizations are currently under review in a number of countries including Singapore and Switzerland.
Swiss logistics company Kuhne + Nagel (SWX: KNIN) has reached a deal to provide distribution and storage of Moderna’s (NASDAQ:MRNA) COVID-19 vaccine, the two firms said on Thursday. Kuhne + Nagel will distribute the vaccine to markets in Europe, Asia, Middle East, and Africa as well as parts of the Americas. At all stages of transport and storage, product integrity at the required temperature of minis 20°C (68°F) will be maintained, the Swiss firm said.
The Health Minister of Spain, Salvador Illa, said on 7 January 2021 that Spain will receive 600,000 doses of Moderna Inc’s COVID-19 vaccine within the coming six weeks, Reuters news agency reported on Thursday.
Moderna confirmed the Company has entered into a supply agreement with the government of the Republic of Korea to provide 40 million doses of the Moderna COVID-19 Vaccine to support the government’s aim of providing vaccines to the public as soon as possible.
According to a media release, under the terms of the proposed agreement, deliveries would begin in May 2021. The Moderna COVID-19 Vaccine is not currently approved for use in South Korea, and the Company will work with regulators to pursue the necessary approvals prior to distribution.
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