The US, which has been hit the hardest by the coronavirus, has infused nearly $472 million as an investment to accelerate the development of the potential vaccine by American biotechnology firm Moderna, according to media reports.

Moderna’s Covid vaccine will begin its decisive final trial on Monday.

Moderna announced on Sunday that the US government plans to add $472 million to the earlier $483 million invested.

Moderna believes the decision is judicious, as it will help the firm “significantly” expand a phase-3 clinical trial of the vaccine on 30,000 participants.

In early trials, Moderna injected the antidote on 45 participants. All of them were able to develop antibodies to keep the virus away.

Now, to gauge mass effects, around 15,000 participants will be given a 100-microgram dose of the vaccine, while the rest will be given a placebo.

Last week, the US government had promised $1.95 billion to the American-German BioNTech/Pfizer pharmaceutical alliance to get 100 million doses of its final vaccine, Forbes reported.

Moderna is working closely with the US government. The firm said that it must be able to develop 500 million doses a year. This could go up to one billion. The mass production will start in 2021.

The US is nearing 1,50,000 Covid cases. The number of new cases has continued to surge.

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