 "Moderna improves forecast for 2022 sales from Covid-19 vaccine")
(Reuters) -Moderna Inc said on Monday it expected to record sales of about $18.5 billion in 2022 from contracts for its COVID-19 vaccine, and about $3.5 billion from potential additional purchases including booster candidates updated for variants.
The company in November said its sales could be in the range of $17 billion to $22 billion in 2022.
Moderna said it was in active discussions for additional COVID-19 vaccine contracts this year.
The company also said it was developing a booster vaccine candidate, called mRNA-1273.529, that targets the fast-spreading Omicron variant and expects it to advance into clinical trials in early 2022.
Booster doses of the company's current COVID-19 vaccine, mRNA-1273, increased neutralizing antibody levels against Omicron at both 50 microgram and 100 microgram dose levels, the drugmaker said.
(Reporting by Manojna Maddipatla in Bengaluru; Editing by Shinjini Ganguli)
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