Moderna asks FDA to authorize 5 additional doses per Covid vaccine vial to speed distribution, source tells CNBC

Moderna asks FDA to authorize 5 additional doses per Covid vaccine vial to speed distribution, source tells CNBC Moderna asked the FDA to allow it to put more doses of its Covid-19 vaccine in each vial to alleviate a bottleneck in manufacturing, a source tells CNBC. Meg Tirrell CNBC

Moderna has asked the U.S. Food and Drug Administration for permission to fill its Covid-19 vaccine vials with up to five additional doses to ease a bottleneck in manufacturing, according to a person familiar with the matter.

The change would allow Moderna to put 15 doses in the same size vials now cleared to hold 10, alleviating pressure on the part of the manufacturing process known as fill/finish, said the person, who declined to be named because the application isn’t yet public.

The availability of Covid-19 vaccines has been a source of frustration since their clearance in the U.S. in mid-December. While the pace of administration has picked up to more than 1 million a day on average, constrained supply has hindered states’ ability to operate mass vaccination sites. As of Friday, the U.S. had distributed 49.2 million doses, and 27.9 million had been administered, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

“We are having trouble producing these mRNA vaccines,” said Dr. Paul Offit, director of the Vaccine Education Center and a physician at the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia. “We’re up to about 1.2 million doses a day when we need to be at 3 million doses a day.” ...