Gavi, Moderna update COVAX supply agreement; agree on access to variant-containing vaccines for lower-income countries

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Dr Seth Berkley, CEO of Gavi: “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 to use where appropriate.”

Geneva, 17 October 2022 – Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance announced today that it had signed an agreement with Moderna related to the supply of COVID-19 vaccines to lower-income countries supported by the Gavi COVAX Advance Market Commitment (AMC). Under the agreement, Gavi and Moderna agree to cancel remaining volumes under their previous agreement in 2022, and establish a framework for lower-income countries to access doses of variant-containing vaccine (VCV) beginning in 2023. Gavi will have the right to access up to 100 million VCV doses, at Moderna’s lowest tiered price, on behalf of AMC participants.

“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 to use where appropriate,” said Dr Seth Berkley, CEO of Gavi, which leads procurement and delivery at scale for COVAX.

In the two years since the first COVID-19 vaccine received WHO emergency approval in December 2020, COVAX has delivered 1.8 billion doses to 146 countries around the world – the largest and fastest public health rollout in history. This includes nearly 186 million doses of the Moderna vaccine, through both the advance purchase agreement with Moderna and dose donations. This effort has enabled 92 lower-income countries to protect, on average, more than 50% of their populations with two doses of COVID-19 vaccine – and protect the majority of those at highest risk such as health care 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. “We are proud of our role in this endeavor and will continue to support COVAX’s mission to ensure broad, affordable, and equitable access to COVID-19 vaccines across low- and middle-income countries as we move towards a world where COVID-19 is endemic.”

A key 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. This latest agreement is part of an on-going 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 still constantly changing, COVAX has also updated its allocation model so that AMC participants can now request – and be rapidly allocated – doses at any time. To-date, COVAX has been able to make doses available for 100% of the country requests received through this “rolling allocation” process.

Notes to editors

Read COVAX: Key Learnings for Future Pandemic Preparedness and Response, which dives into innovations, challenges and recommendations future efforts need to consider – drawing on COVAX’s unique experience delivering at scale in the face of an unprecedented global health emergency
Access the latest COVAX data brief, published every two weeks, for more information on supply, deliveries, allocation, administration and coverage
Read the latest edition of our monthly series, “5 things to know about COVAX in September 2022”, by Dr Derrick Sim, Managing Director of the COVAX Facility at Gavi.

About Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance

Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance is a public-private partnership that helps vaccinate half the world’s children against some of the world’s deadliest diseases. Since its inception in 2000, Gavi has helped to immunise a whole generation – over 981 million children – and prevented more than 16.2 million future deaths, helping to halve child mortality in 73 lower-income countries. Gavi also plays a key role in improving global health security by supporting health systems as well as funding global stockpiles for Ebola, cholera, meningococcal and yellow fever vaccines. After two decades of progress, Gavi is now focused on protecting the next generation, above all the zero-dose children who have not received even a single vaccine shot. The Vaccine Alliance employs innovative finance and the latest technology – from drones to biometrics – to save millions more lives, prevent outbreaks before they can spread and help countries on the road to self-sufficiency. Learn more at www.gavi.org and connect with us on Facebook and Twitter.

Gavi is a co-convener of COVAX, the vaccines pillar of the Access to COVID-19 Tools (ACT) Accelerator, together with the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations (CEPI), the World Health Organization (WHO) and UNICEF. In its role, Gavi is focused on procurement and delivery for COVAX: coordinating the design, implementation and administration of the COVAX Facility and the Gavi COVAX AMC and working with its Alliance partners UNICEF and WHO, along with governments, on country readiness and delivery.

The Vaccine Alliance brings together developing country and donor governments, the World Health Organization, UNICEF, the World Bank, the vaccine industry, technical agencies, civil society, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and other private sector partners. View the full list of donor governments and other leading organisations that fund Gavi’s work here.

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