Canada buys up millions more doses of Moderna’s bivalent COVID-19 vaccine

OTTAWA — Moderna says the federal government has purchased a total of 12 million doses of the company's bivalent vaccine that targets both the original strain of COVID-19 and the Omicron variant.

Canada purchased 4.5 million new doses and pushed up the delivery date for the 1.5 million doses originally scheduled to arrive in Canada next year.

The government and the company also agreed to convert six million doses of the company's original COVID-19 Spikevax vaccine to bivalent doses.

The agreement depends on Health Canada's approval of the bivalent vaccine, which was submitted for review on June 30.

Last week, British regulators became the first in the world to authorize Moderna's vaccine that protects against both the original strain of the novel coronavirus and the Omicron BA.1 subvariant.

Health Canada is also reviewing a bivalent Omicron vaccine submission from Pfizer.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Aug. 22, 2022.

Laura Osman, The Canadian Press