On Jul. 29, 2022, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), in collaboration with the U.S. Department of Defense, announced an agreement to purchase 66 million doses of Moderna’s bivalent COVID-19 vaccine booster candidate for potential use in the fall and winter. The contract included an award of up to $1.74 billion for the manufacture and delivery of 66 million doses of mRNA-1273.222, as well as options to purchase up to an additional 234 million doses of COVID-19 vaccine booster candidates from Moderna.

This purchase is in addition to the 105 million bivalent COVID-19 vaccine booster doses the U.S. government purchased recently from Pfizer for potential use later this year, pending FDA authorization and a recommendation by CDC. Pending those FDA and CDC actions, HHS would receive the first deliveries of the Moderna and Pfizer vaccine booster doses in early fall.

Existing COVID-19 vaccines remain the single most important tool in preventing serious illness, hospitalization, and death, and given the current threat that BA.5 Omicron subvariant poses, it is essential that Americans stay up to date with their COVID-19 vaccinations. At the same time, the virus is dynamic, and the Administration continues to act aggressively to ensure that Americans have access to the latest, most protective vaccines as quickly as they become available.

In order to do so in the absence of additional COVID-19 funding from Congress, earlier this month, the Administration was forced to pull $10 billion from critical COVID-19 response efforts in order to pay for additional vaccines and treatments. The funding for this latest agreement with Moderna comes from that reallocated funding.

Combined, the two agreements with Moderna and Pfizer would make available to the U.S. approximately 171 million bivalent vaccine booster doses for the fall and beyond, should they be authorized and recommended, which would not be enough for every single American. Both Moderna and Pfizer agreements include options for a total of 600 million doses—300 million from each company—but these options can only be exercised with additional funding from Congress.