after lagging for months, canada’s shipments from vaccine maker moderna are set to get a major boost in the coming weeks.
procurement minister anita anand announced wednesday that the company will deliver seven million more doses in june.
canada’s vaccine program depends almost entirely on deliveries of mrna vaccines from pfizer and moderna. pfizer shipments have been reliable with deliveries that have increasingly ramped up, but moderna has often delivered shots late or in smaller quantities than initially pledged.
the company delivered 650,000 doses in late april, half the expected shipment, then an additional two million doses in may. it has delivered 500,000 doses in the last two weeks, but with these additional seven million doses it will step up considerably to meet a target of delivering over 12 million doses by the end of june.
canada’s vaccine agreements set quarterly targets for deliveries and moderna had raised the possibility it would miss that june target, which now appears unlikely.
anand said for the first time the moderna doses will come from u.s. facilities instead of european ones and there was still work to do before determining the precise delivery schedule.