Dado Ruvic/Reuters
- Pfizer and Moderna have made manufacturing improvements to ramp up COVID-19 vaccine deliveries.
- Combined, the two companies now plan to deliver 600 million doses to the US by the end of July.
- Pharmaceutical executives spoke to a House subcommittee Tuesday on production and delivery goals.
- Visit the Business section of Insider for more stories.
Drug makers are ramping up deliveries of COVID-19 vaccines in the US, executives told the House Energy and Commerce oversight and investigations subcommittee in a Tuesday hearing.
Pfizer and Moderna fell short of expectations after their two-dose vaccines received emergency approval in mid-December, the Washington Post reported. But on Tuesday, executives from both companies touted their manufacturing improvements as putting them ahead of schedule in delivering millions of vaccines to the US.
Pfizer Chief Business Officer John Young said the company, which has delivered 40 million doses total as of a week ago, has made “significant investments” in its US manufacturing. He expects to increase the number of weekly doses delivered to 13 million from 4 to 5 million by mid-March.
Moderna President Stephen Hoge said the company has shipped 54 million vaccines in total from its December approval to last week. Now, with its scaled up productions, the company is on track to double deliveries to more than 40 million doses per month by April.
Moderna now anticipates delivering the second 100 million doses by the end of May, and the third 100 million doses by the end of July, two months ahead of schedule.
The new timeline means Pfizer and Moderna could deliver 600 million doses to the US by the end of July, enough to vaccinate 300 million Americans with both shots.
"We will fight every step of the way until this devastating pandemic is under control," Young said.
The two drugmakers plan to deliver 220 million doses to the US combined by next month. An executive from Johnson & Johnson, whose single-dose vaccine may soon receive emergency approval, told committee members that it's on track to deliver 20 million doses next month, putting total US vaccines at 240 million at the end of March.
The improved vaccination projections come after the US hit 500,000 deaths caused by COVID-19, the virus which took hold of the country almost a year ago. Since the vaccine rollout began more than two months ago, 44 million people, or 13% of the US population, have received one or more doses, and the country has yet to reach herd immunity.