FDA to Allow Moderna to Add More Vaccine Formula to Vials

The Food and Drug Administration on Friday agreed to allow the pharmaceutical manufacturer Moderna to increase the coronavirus vaccine formula in each of its vials by up to 40%, according to The New York Times.

Sources told the Times that the move could allow the company to include up to 14 doses in each vial of the vaccine instead of the current 10 doses, which would increase the country’s total vaccine supply by about 20%.

”It would be a great step forward,” Dr. Moncef Slaoui, the scientific leader of the Trump Administration’s program to develop a vaccine, told the Times. ”I think it will have an impact in the short term.”

A spokesperson for the company declined to comment to the newspaper about its discussions with regulators.

Earlier this week, the Biden administration announced a deal to purchase 100 million more doses of the Moderna vaccine, which has provided 41 million doses to the government so far.

”We appreciate the confidence that the U.S. government has demonstrated in our COVID-19 Vaccine,” Moderna CEO Stéphane Bancel said in a press release. ”We continue to scale up our manufacturing capability, both in and outside of the United States. Our goal is to bring our vaccine to as many people as possible around the world to help end this pandemic. It is encouraging and humbling to know that more than 22 million Americans have already been protected with Moderna’s vaccine.”