Toronto, April 16: Moderna will deliver fewer vaccine doses to Canada this month than previously thought due to production disruptions. It occurred due to production grapples happened in their European plants. But its main competitor, Pfizer, which produces the same mRNA type vaccine, will supply additional vaccines beyond May and June to make up for that shortfall.
The Massachusetts-based company, Moderna supposed to send1.2 million doses of the vaccine to Canada this month, but only 650,000 doses will arrive, either by the end of this month or early next month. Meanwhile, they were supposed to send 12.3 million doses by June, in which case they would provide 1 to 2 million fewer doses, which means they are in production deficit.
Meanwhile, today Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said that Canada has signed an additional 8 million vaccine deal with Pfizer, of which 4 million will be received in May, 2 million in June and the remaining 2 million in July. It has been confirmed that Pfizer’s vaccine supply in Canada will be 2 million doses per week in May and 2.5 million doses per week in June. For such development, Trudeau has praised Pfizer. Because, Canada is now going to get 23.6 million doses of vaccine from Pfizer instead of 17.6 million doses by the second quarter of this year. In addition, Canada is receiving a total of 48 to 50 million vaccine doses from all vaccine suppliers at the same time. So Trudeau said every adult Canadian is going to get a dose of it by June.
A spokesman for Moderna said in a statement that they would coordinate the supply of vaccines to Canada and other countries in the coming weeks. They will be able to accelerate their production by increasing the ‘required capital’ investment and be able to take advantage of ‘all possible cooperation opportunities’. At the same time, it will accelerate to fulfill the needs of the world. Basically Moderna had no experience in large-scale vaccine production before the onset of corona pandemic. They joined forces with Lonza Pharmaceuticals in Switzerland to develop the vaccine. They also sought the cooperation of other pharmaceutical manufacturers in marketing their vaccines in the United States.
