Moderna has agreed to supply up to half a billion doses of its coronavirus vaccine to low- and middle-income countries, the company announced on Monday, writes USNEWS.

The biotechnology company said in the announcement that it will supply up to 500 million doses of its COVID-19 vaccine to 92 countries through an agreement with Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance.

Along with the World Health Organization and the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations, Gavi oversees COVAX, a global initiative to provide equitable access to COVID-19 vaccines to all countries, regardless of income levels.

“This is an important milestone as we work to ensure that people around the world have access to our COVID-19 vaccine”, - Stéphane Bancel, CEO of Moderna, said. “We recognize that many countries have limited resources to access COVID-19 vaccines. We support COVAX’s mission to ensure broad, affordable and equitable access to COVID-19 vaccines and we remain committed to doing everything that we can to ending this ongoing pandemic with our mRNA COVID-19 vaccine”.

Moderna said that an initial 34 million doses will be delivered in the fourth quarter of 2021, with an option for Gavi to purchase 466 million more doses in 2022.

All of the vaccines are being offered at Moderna’s lowest tiered price. The company is also in discussions to allocate and supply to self-financing countries in the future.

Moderna’s coronavirus vaccine is a two-dose regimen for the prevention of the virus in people aged 18 and older.