WASHINGTON, 28 July 2020, TON:  The United States has doubled its allocation to American firm Moderna, around US $1 billion to expedite development of a potential COVID-19 vaccine. The final stage of clinical trials has already started from Monday.

The Moderna biotechnology company has confirmed about the latest development on Monday. Moderna representative said that in the Phase clinical trial of a potential vaccine is to include 30,000 participants who will be given a 100-microgram dose of the vaccine, while the rest will be given a placebo.

Moderna, which has been working with US health authorities, said it expects to be able to produce 500 million doses a year -- and potentially up to 1 billion -- starting in 2021.

Meanwhile, last week, the American-German BioNTech/Pfizer pharmaceutical alliance announced that the US government had committed $1.95 billion to procure 100 million doses of its eventual vaccine.