Moderna Inc. MRNA,
announced Tuesday afternoon that it has reached an agreement to sell 100 million doses of its research vaccine for COVID-19 to the U.S. government for more than $ 1.5 billion. “Breaking: Moderna announces delivery agreement with US government to secure an initial $ 100 million dose of mRNA-1273 for up to $ 1.525 billion with option granted to US government to purchase up to additional 400 million doses,” the company revealed in a tweet. Modern shares jumped more than 8% in trading after hours immediately following the announcement. Earlier studies by Moderna’s vaccine candidate produced antibodies to COVID-19, the company announced earlier, and it is currently working on a Phase 3 study of the vaccine. “The U.S. government has announced that in line with its commitment to free access to COVID-19 vaccines, Americans will receive mRNA-1273 at no cost to the vaccine itself,” Moderna added in a subsequent news release. “As is customary with vaccines purchased by government, health care professionals would be able to pay for the cost of administering the vaccine.” Modern stocks have exploded amid frenzy to develop a COVID-19 vaccine during a global pandemic, with the share price jumping more than 250% so far this year than the S&P 500 index SPX,
has a 5.2% profit.
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