Listen Live

BLOOMINGTON, Ind.–Twenty million doses of the Moderna vaccine could be distributed from Catalent Biologic’s Bloomington facility by the end of December, the company’s president told Vice Pres. Mike Pence, during his Tuesday visit.

Alessandro Maselli also said to expect hundreds of millions of doses in the coming month, which, like the first 20 million, would go all around the country.

“The 2,000 people of this facility are working tirelessly…volunteering for production shifts over Thanksgiving, over Christmas even,” said Maselli. “Everybody understands the mission we are on at this facility.”

Pence was on a mission, too. He stressed safey and repeatedly reassured people that the vaccines are safe.

“Be confident that we’ve cut red tape, but we’ve cut no corners when it comes to the development of this vaccine,” said Pence. “Whether it be the Pfizer vaccine that has been approved for emergency use or the Moderna vaccine, that’s being put into vials right here at Catalent, that may well be approved before the end of this week, I want to assure people all across this state and all across the country, that we’ve applied that gold standard level of review.”

Pence said he will gladly get the vaccine when it comes his turn, without hesitancy.

“This is a medical miracle, not just in the amount of time, but also in the effectiveness of these medicines,” he said. “Even as we speak today there are fully four vaccines that are in phase 3 of clinical trials.”