MUMBAI: India is likely to get access to Moderna’s Covid-19 vaccine through the COVAX facility, an official aware of the development told ET.

Since Moderna received funding from the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations (CEPI), which is a part of COVAX, India may get doses of the vaccine.

The COVAX facility aims to distribute 2 billion Covid-19 vaccines to low- and middle-income countries by the end of 2021.

In January this year, CEPI gave Moderna $1million to develop its messenger RNA vaccine against the Covid-19 virus and because of this partial funding, the US biotechnology company has to supply doses to middle- and low-income countries.

CEPI was created at the World Economic Forum in 2016 to develop, manufacture and stockpile vaccines.

Moderna has no tie-up with Indian manufacturers and the first supply commitment of the company is to the US government. Moderna’s mRNA technology is also used by Pfizer NSE -2.11 %, which said last week that its candidate reported 90% efficacy.

However, unlike the stringent temperature requirement of -70C needed for the Pfizer product, the Moderna vaccine can be stored at fridge temperatures of 2C to 8C for 30 days or -20C for up to six months.

Source: Livemint