HQ Team
October 18, 2022: Gavi, a public-private partnership Vaccine Alliance, has signed a new pact with Moderna to supply Covid-19 vaccines to low-income countries.
The initiative is backed by the Gavi COVAX Advance Market Commitment (AMC).
Gavi and Moderna have also agreed to cancel the remaining volumes under their previous agreement in 2022 and establish a framework for low-income countries to access doses of variant-containing vaccines beginning in 2023.
Gavi will have the right to access up to 100 million variants containing vaccine doses, at Moderna’s lowest-tiered price, on behalf of AMC participants.
Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance, helps vaccinate half the world’s children against some of the world’s deadliest diseases.
Equitable access
“This agreement with Moderna represents a critical step for equitable access, helping COVAX adjust its portfolio to current demand and ensuring lower-income countries have access to variant-containing vaccines where appropriate,” said Dr Seth Berkley, CEO of Gavi.
Gavi leads procurement and delivery at scale for COVAX.
COVAX is the vaccines pillar of the Access to Covid-19 Tools (ACT) Accelerator.
The ACT Accelerator is a global collaboration to accelerate the development, production, and equitable access to COVID-19 tests, treatments, and vaccines.
COVAX has delivered 1.8 billion doses to 146 countries worldwide in the last two years – the most prominent and fastest public health rollout in history.
186 million doses
The rollout includes nearly 186 million doses of the Moderna vaccine through the advance purchase agreement with Moderna and dose donations
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The effort has enabled 92 lower-income countries to protect, on average, more than 50% of their populations with two doses of the Covid-19 vaccines. It also helped most people at the highest risk, such as healthcare workers and the elderly.
“Gavi and our COVAX partners have been pivotal in ensuring the global supply of Covid-19 vaccines, leading the largest and most rapid vaccine rollout in history,’ said Stéphane Bancel, Chief Executive Officer of Moderna.
A pivotal element to COVAX’s ability to deploy Covid-19 vaccines at a historically high rate has been its ability to adapt to an unpredictable and rapidly changing pandemic environment.
Rephasing, resizing
The Gavi-Moderna agreement is part of an ongoing effort to actively manage COVAX’s portfolio to meet countries’ evolving needs and be prepared for unexpected future scenarios by rephasing, resizing and updating supply agreements with manufacturers and donors.
Recognising that countries’ needs are constantly changing, COVAX has also updated its allocation model so that AMC participants can request – and be rapidly allocated – doses at any time.
To date, COVAX has made doses available for 100% of the country requests received through this “rolling allocation” process.
