Moderna (NASDAQ: MRNA) 105% after-hours on news it will receive up to $483 M from the U.S. government to speed up advancement of a COVID-19 vaccine.
The company says the Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority within the U.S. Department of Health and Human Solutions will fund development of the mRNA-1273 vaccine prospect to licensure with the Fda.
Moderna plans to begin a Phase 2 research study in Q2 and start Stage 3 testing as early as fall 2020.
” By investing now in our production procedure scale-up to allow large scale production for pandemic action, we believe that we would be able to provide millions of doses per month in 2020 and with additional financial investments, tens of millions each month in 2021, if the vaccine prospect is successful in the clinic,” says CEO Stéphane Bancel.