Moderna, Inc., a biotechnology company pioneering messenger RNA (mRNA) therapeutics and vaccines, announced the U.S. FDA has approved the Biologics License Application (BLA) for SPIKEVAX (COVID-19 Vaccine, mRNA) to prevent COVID-19 in individuals 18 years of age and older.
“Our COVID-19 vaccine has been administered to hundreds of millions of people around the world, protecting people from COVID-19 infection, hospitalization and death. The totality of real-world data and the full BLA for Spikevax in the United States reaffirms the importance of vaccination against this virus. This is a momentous milestone in Moderna’s history as it is our first product to achieve licensure in the U.S.,” said Stéphane Bancel, Chief Executive Officer of Moderna. “The full licensure of Spikevax in the U.S. now joins that in Canada, Japan, the European Union, the UK, Israel, and other countries, where the adolescent indication is also approved. We are grateful to the U.S. FDA for their thorough review of our application. We are humbled by the role that Spikevax is playing to help end this pandemic.”
The FDA based its decision on the totality of scientific evidence shared by the Company in its submission package, which included follow-up data from the Phase 3 COVE study showing high efficacy and favorable safety approximately six months after the second dose. Moderna also submitted manufacturing and facilities data required by the FDA for licensure. SPIKEVAX has received approval by regulators in more than 70 countries.
Moderna’s COVID-19 vaccine was available under Emergency Use Authorization (EUA) in the U.S. from December 18, 2020. Under an EUA, the FDA has the authority to allow medical products to be used in an emergency to diagnose, treat, or prevent serious or life-threatening diseases or conditions during a declared public health emergency when there are no adequate, approved, and available alternatives. A booster dose of the Moderna COVID-19 vaccine at the 50 µg dose level is authorized for emergency use in the U.S. under EUA for adults 18 years and older. A third dose of the Moderna COVID-19 vaccine at the 100 µg dose level is authorized for emergency use in immunocompromised individuals 18 years of age or older in the United States who have undergone solid organ transplantation, or who are diagnosed with conditions that are considered to have an equivalent level of immunocompromise.
About Moderna
In 10 years since its inception, Moderna has transformed from a research-stage company advancing programs in the field of messenger RNA (mRNA), to an enterprise with a diverse clinical portfolio of vaccines and therapeutics across seven modalities, a broad intellectual property portfolio in areas including mRNA and lipid nanoparticle formulation, and an integrated manufacturing plant that allows for both clinical and commercial production at scale and at unprecedented speed. Moderna maintains alliances with a broad range of domestic and overseas government and commercial collaborators, which has allowed for the pursuit of both groundbreaking science and rapid scaling of manufacturing. Most recently, Moderna’s capabilities have come together to allow the approval of one of the earliest and most effective vaccines against the COVID-19 pandemic.
Moderna’s mRNA platform builds on continuous advances in basic and applied mRNA science, delivery technology and manufacturing, and has allowed the development of therapeutics and vaccines for infectious diseases, immuno-oncology, rare diseases, cardiovascular diseases and auto-immune diseases. Moderna has been named a top biopharmaceutical employer by Science for the past seven years
