New U.S. confirmed coronavirus cases topped 92,000 this week, according to data by Johns Hopkins University. Yahoo Finance’s Anjalee Khemlani breaks down the latest outbreak of COVID-19 cases and the FDA’s decision to approve Moderna’s phase 2 trial of its coronavirus vaccine.

Video Transcript

ADAM SHAPIRO: Those shares are up more than 6% today on some very important news. Anjalee Khemlani is here to break it down for us and help us understand what phase II trials of the vaccine really mean, Anjalee.

ANJALEE KHEMLANI: Hey, Adam. Yeah, so what we're-- what we're getting from Moderna today on their earnings call is that they've been approved to start the next phase of their trial, which really focuses on safety and figuring out what dosing actually will work on the patients who-- or on anyone who needs to be vaccinated against COVID-19.

And so, looking at that, that has really been interesting because Moderna is really front of the line and, yet, a much smaller company, as we're looking at all the players who are pursuing a vaccine. We know that we heard from Pfizer yesterday talking about how it could have a vaccine ready for use in September. And Moderna is following, similarly, with that timeline.

So it's going to be interesting to see how that all pans out. They have accelerated their timeline. The company is a clinical stage company, which means that they don't actually have any drugs on the market. And this could be that first one that reaches market. So they're looking at an early 2021 license approval there, so really interesting story there coming out of this company, Adam.

JULIE HYMAN: Anjalee, actually, I want to chime in here and ask you something I've been wondering about when it comes to these various competing vaccine processes and developments is that it seems as though, at the end of this, there will be enormous demand for a vaccine, right, if everyone who has not had COVID-19 has to be vaccinated.

So does that mean there will be demand for all of these various vaccines? Or is it most important to be first? Because it seems like any one company would have a hard time making enough of this stuff for everyone who wants it.

ANJALEE KHEMLANI: Correct, there is a lot of competition for this and for that reason. It is global, immediate demand. And that's something that you don't normally see for any drug that's in the pipeline normally. And so that's one of the things that is really pushing all these companies to accelerate their timelines and accelerate what they're using.

We know that Pfizer and Moderna are those two who are looking at this very specific messenger RNA technology, which, as we discussed before, is a synthetic version, rather than taking the time to copy the live virus. And so that is helping really escalate where they can go with this, but it also does put pressure on their production capabilities.

You've got Pfizer, a very large vaccine producer who already has the supply chain or the infrastructure, rather, in place. Meanwhile, you're looking at Moderna who does have a partnership with one company, but that question did come up on the earnings call too is whether or not they're confident, with that one partnership, they can meet the global demand that they're facing right now.

And so it does remain to be seen how much they can supply. I know they've said something along the lines of a billion doses in a year. So we'll see--

ADAM SHAPIRO: Anjalee?

ANJALEE KHEMLANI: --how it all pans out.

ADAM SHAPIRO: Let-- let me ask you, when you talk about infrastructure, whether it be Pfizer, Moderna, J&J, which is accelerating its vaccine, you have to have something to put the dose into. And then you have to have a way to administer it. Do we have that in place? Or is somebody working on that through the government, BARDA, the government agency that works with these companies to get it ready?

ANJALEE KHEMLANI: They do already have some providers of this, and partnering with those is going to be the key. In my discussions recently with Pfizer, they were talking about how, in fact, they do have the capability to do it, but it's such a specialized thing for, specifically, this type of vaccine production. For traditional production, there are obviously more suppliers out there, but that's one of the things that is going to be an interesting challenge to see if they're starting right now at risk and whether or not that helps to ease the pressure that they're going to be facing.