COVID-19 vaccine: federal government secures additional doses of vaccine from Moderna
Bern, 08.12.2020 - The federal government is working hard to guarantee members of the Swiss public quick access to safe, effective COVID-19 vaccines. Since the development and availability of Covid-19 vaccines is subject to a great deal of uncertainty, the government is pursuing various options. Now the government has been able to secure an additional 3 million doses of vaccine from Moderna.
Like Pfizer/BioNTech, Moderna has opted for a novel technology: mRNA is a type of messenger molecule that carries the instructions for building proteins. These give the cells of the body the information they need to produce a virus protein. As soon as the protein is produced in the body, the immune system recognises it as a foreign body and thus produces antibodies against the virus. The immune response prepares the body to fight the virus.
Further discussions with vaccine manufacturers
So far, Switzerland has signed contracts with three vaccine manufacturers whose products are at an advanced stage of clinical development. Besides Moderna (around 7.5 million doses in total) these are the vaccine manufacturers Pfizer/BioNTech (around 3 million doses) and AstraZeneca (around 5.3 million doses).
All three manufacturers are currently undergoing the approval process at Swissmedic. Added to this, Switzerland is a member of the COVAX Initiative as a means of gaining access to vaccines for up to 20 per cent of the Swiss population.
The federal government is still in discussion with various vaccine manufacturers. Since it is not yet clear which vaccines will prevail, it is targeting a number of SARS-CoV-2 vaccines based on different technologies (mRNA, protein-based and vector-based).
Address for enquiries
Federal Office of Public Health,
Infoline Coronavirus +41 58 463 00 00
Infoline for people travelling to Switzerland +41 58 464 44 88
Links
Publisher
Federal Office of Public Health
http://www.bag.admin.ch