Moderna and Catalent have announced the expansion of their strategic collaboration to dedicate a new high-speed vial filling line for the manufacture of the Moderna COVID-19 vaccine and potentially other investigational programs in Moderna’s pipeline, at Catalent’s biologics facility in Bloomington, Indiana.
In June 2020, the companies announced Catalent would provide aseptic vial filling and packaging from its Bloomington site, including additional staffing required for 24/7 manufacturing to support production of an initial 100 million doses of Moderna’s vaccine. On March 29, Moderna announced the achievement of this milestone.
As part of the expanded agreement, Catalent will dedicate to Moderna’s use a high-speed filling line at the site through June 2023, which can be used to manufacture the COVID-19 vaccine, with the potential for additional investigational programs in Moderna’s large pipeline. Catalent will also provide inspection, labelling, cartoning, and final packaging for these programs.
“We appreciate this expanded collaboration with Catalent and the dedication of their team,” said Juan Andres, Moderna’s Chief Technical Operations and Quality Officer. “This additional fill- finish capacity will be important for not only our COVID-19 vaccine, but also potentially for other programs in our clinical development pipeline.”
“Catalent’s partnership with Moderna began in 2016, when we had only glimpsed the potential applications of mRNA and could not have guessed how pivotal mRNA would become in the fight against COVID-19,” said Alessandro Maselli, Catalent’s President and COO. “We are proud to announce this extension of our companies’ strategic collaboration, and we look forward to further demonstrating our commercial manufacturing expertise as we help supply more vaccine doses.”
In September 2020, Catalent announced a $50 m investment into the third high-speed vial filling line at Bloomington. The project is projected to be completed in April 2021.
