Israel Triples Contracted Vaccine Supply From Moderna To 6Mln Doses - Prime Minister

MOSCOW (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 04th December, 2020) Israel signed an agreement with US pharmaceutical company Moderna to procure an additional 4 million doses of its candidate coronavirus vaccine in 2021, thus tripling the amount under the original contract, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's press service said on Friday.

"On instruction from Prime Minister Netanyahu & Health Minister [Yuli] Edelstein, the Health Ministry signed an agreement with Moderna to triple the number of vaccines the company will provide Israel in 2021 from 2 million vaccines to 6 million which will be enough for 3 million citizens," the Israeli prime minister's office said on Twitter.

In a follow-up tweet, Netanyahu was quoted as saying that securing early access to Moderna's mRNA-1273 vaccine "gives us hope."

"We see the light at the end of the tunnel.

Until then we need to follow the rules. Our mission is to bring vaccines. Your mission is to follow the rules. If we do this, we are going to win. Together we will defeat the coronavirus," the Israeli prime minister said, as quoted in another tweet.

The original agreement between Israel and Moderna was signed in mid-June. On November 30, the pharmaceutical company released results of the vaccine's Primary efficacy analysis indicating efficacy of 94.1 percent.

Israel has also signed contracts with other vaccine developers, including US pharmaceutical company Pfizer and UK company AstraZeneca, while Israel's top hospital, the Jerusalem-located Hadassah Medical Center, has ordered 1.5 million doses of the Russian-made Sputnik V coronavirus vaccine.