CNN reported on Wednesday that the US government has reached a USD1.525bn deal with US biotechnology company Moderna Inc, to manufacture and deliver 100 million doses of the company's COVID-19 vaccine once it is approved, according to a news release from the US Department of Health and Human Services (HHS).

Moderna is one of several companies manufacturing the vaccine "at risk", meaning the company is currently making the vaccine before it is approved. Clinical trials are currently underway to test whether it's safe and effective.

Under this contract, worth up to USD1.525bn for 100 million doses, the doses would be owned by the US government and distributed and used as part of its COVID-19 vaccine campaign. If the doses are used, they would be provided to Americans at no cost.

The government can also acquire up to an additional 400 million doses of this vaccine.

This vaccine, called mRNA-1273, was developed by Moderna in collaboration with the US government. It had development help from the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases and the US Biomedical Advance Research and Development Authority (BARDA) supported late stage clinical trials and has helped scale up manufacturing.

Moderna's advanced stage clinical trial, which started 27 July 2020 is the first government-funded Phase 3 clinical trial for a COVID-19 vaccine in the US.

This contract is a part of the US government's Operation Warp Speed, the federal push to get vaccines and therapeutics to market as soon as safely possible. HHS said the goal is to get effective vaccines to the American people by the end of 2020.

According to CNN, the US government also reached a deal with Pfizer in July 2020 to produce 100 million doses of its vaccine. In August 2020, it agreed a similar deal for 100 million doses with Janssen, the Johnson & Johnson vaccine arm, for its vaccine candidate. It has other deals with GlaxoSmithKline, Sanofi Pasteur, Novavax and AstraZeneca.

There are 28 Covid-19 vaccines in human trials, according to the World Health Organisation, CNN added.