Moderna Enters 10-Year COVID-19 Vaccine Manufacturing Agreement

Moderna has signed a 10-year agreement with Swiss manufacturer Lonza to manufacture its COVID-19 vaccine candidate and other future products.

Under the agreement, the companies will establish manufacturing units at Lonza’s facilities in the U.S. and Switzerland. They plan to expand capacity across Lonza’s worldwide facilities over time to allow for manufacturing of material equivalent to up to 1 billion doses of the vaccine per year.

The companies expect to produce the first batches of the vaccine candidate at Lonza’s U.S. facilities in July.

“This long-term strategic collaboration agreement will enable Moderna to accelerate, by 10 times, our manufacturing capacity for mRNA-1273 and additional products,” the company said.

Moderna has filed with the FDA for a phase 2 trial and late-stage studies for the vaccine. The agency’s approval will depend on safety data from the company’s phase 1 study that got underway in March and has not yet produced full results.

Moderna said it expects to start a phase 3 study in the fall. — James Miessler