Pharmacies and hospitals across the country are running out of Moderna's tweaked vaccine booster, but the vaccine-maker said it expects supply to return to normal levels in a few days.
A few locations administering the updated bivalent booster reported shortages of Moderna's version in mid-September, but the issue seems to be more widespread than a few hospitals and local pharmacies.
Some CVS pharmacies are completely out of Moderna's new vaccine, a company spokesperson told Becker's. The company said they're working to acquire more Moderna doses but have ample supply of Pfizer's omicron-focused boosters.
CVS said the shortage is not region-specific, but Moderna said there's high demand in "certain areas."
"We are working closely with [the] U.S. government to deliver significant amounts of updated, bivalent booster doses as we continue to see high demand in certain areas of the country," Moderna spokesperson Elise Meyer told Becker's. "We anticipate that these availability constraints will be resolved in the coming days."
Walgreens is also experiencing supply delays, citing that the national supply is "currently limited, causing appointments for the product to vary across the country."
The lag could be because the FDA hasn't approved one of Moderna's facilities to manufacture the modified vaccine product, according to Bloomberg.
Despite this supply issue, which happened about two weeks after the product was authorized for emergency use, Moderna said it's still "on track" to deliver 70 million doses by the end of 2022.