Moderna Raises 2021 Base COVID-19 Vaccine Production Plan To 700M Doses

Moderna Inc (NASDAQ: MRNA) said it was making new capital investments to increase manufacturing capacity, and next year it plans to produce 1.4 billion doses, up from an earlier estimate of 1.2 billion doses.
It also raised the low end of its COVID-19 vaccine production forecast this year to 700 million doses from 600 million doses. The high end of its range for this year is unchanged at 1 billion doses.
These production estimates are based on the existing dose of 100 μg.
The company plans to study a dose range of 50 μg and lower for variant-based boosters and an additional booster of mRNA-1273. If 50 μg is the effective dose for a booster, then the 2022 supply could be significantly higher than 1.4 billion doses.
With the total capacity dedicated, 2022 supply will reach up to 2.8 billion doses, at 50 μg.
The company has delivered about 60 million doses globally, including 55 million in the U.S. It said another 33 million doses have been produced in the U.S. and are in vials awaiting the final stages of production and testing before being released.
The company is also testing a new COVID-19 vaccine targeting the South African strain.
Price Action: MRNA is up 4.60% at $151.45 in premarket trading on the last check Thursday.