President Trump’s “Operation Warp Speed” looks like it will be taking another victory lap as another vaccine is proving to be nearly 95% effective, according to Moderna, the vaccine’s manufacturer.
The Trump administration awarded Moderna a $1.5 billion contract in August to ramp up the manufacturing of a vaccine and eventually deliver enough doses for 50-million people. The government would also have the option of purchasing additional doses to cover another 200-million people.
Chief Executive Officer of Moderna, Stephane Bancel, credited the U.S. Federal government and Operation Warp speed specifically for being “instrumental to accelerating our progress to this point.”
Moderna’s president, Dr. Stephen Hoge told the Associated Press that reaching this “really important milestone” is great but multiple companies finding success is even more important. “That should give us all hope that actually a vaccine is going to be able to stop this pandemic and hopefully get us back to our lives,” Hoge said. “It won’t be Moderna alone that solves this problem. It’s going to require many vaccines” to meet the worldwide demand.
In a statement released by Moderna, the company said, “By the end of 2020, the Company expects to have approximately 20 million doses of mRNA-1273 ready to ship in the U.S. The company remains on track to manufacture 500 million to 1 billion doses globally in 2021.”
The stock market loved hearing that, with Dow futures rocketing up 500 points. The news comes just a week after Pfizer announced their vaccine had proven to be 90% effective in recent testing.
Add comment