On Dec. 23, 2020, Moderna announced that Health Canada had authorized its vaccine against COVID-19 for the immunization of people 18 years of age and older under an Interim Order.

The authorization comes under Health Canada’s Interim Order Respecting the Importation, Sale and Advertising of Drugs for Use in Relation to COVID-19 and is based on a rolling review of data that was announced on October 12, 2020. The rolling review includes data from the Phase 3 COVE study involving 30,000 participants.

Earlier in the month, the Canadian government exercised its option to increase its confirmed order commitment by 20 million doses of the Moderna COVID-19 Vaccine against COVID-19, mRNA-1273, bringing its confirmed order commitment to 40 million doses. This increase reflected continued efforts by the Canadian Government to secure access to safe and effective COVID-19 vaccines for Canadian citizens.