New York, Apr 29 (IANS): US pharmaceutical firm Moderna on Thursday announced plans to increase the global supply of its Covid-19 vaccines to up to 3 billion doses.

The company will make new funding commitments to increase supply at its manufacturing facilities in Europe and the US, it said in a statement.

The additional investments will double drug substance manufacturing at Lonza's Switzerland-based facility, and more than double output at Rovi's Spain-based facility, as well as increase drug substance a 50 per cent at Moderna's facilities in the US.

The investment to increase supply is necessary due to an expected significant need for booster vaccinations in 2022 and beyond. Increasing the global capacity to 3 billion doses will depend upon the mix between its mRNA vaccine and potentially lower doses of its variant booster candidates and paediatric vaccines, the statement said.

"As we follow the rapid spread of SARS-CoV-2 variants of concern, we believe that there will continue to be significant need for our mRNA Covid-19 vaccine and our variant booster candidates into 2022 and 2023," said Stephane Bancel, Chief Executive Officer of Moderna, in the statement.

"Today we have announced that our investments in Europe, including Spain, France and Belgium, Switzerland, and the US will allow us to deliver up to 3 billion doses in 2022, depending on the mix of products between primary series of vaccination and variant boosters," Bancel added.

The pharma major also plans to increase its 2021 manufacturing supply forecast to between 800 million to 1 billion doses.