Catalent Expands COVID-19 Vaccine Fill/Finish Collaboration with Moderna

Catalent announced on April 6, 2021 that it has expanded its strategic collaboration with Moderna by dedicating a new high-speed vial-filling line at its biologics facility in Bloomington, IN, for the manufacture of Moderna’s COVID-19 messenger RNA (mRNA)vaccine and other investigational programs in Moderna’s pipeline.

Under the terms of the expanded agreement, Catalent will provide Moderna with the filling line until June 2023 along with inspection, labeling, cartoning, and final packaging for the potential pipeline programs, Catalent said in a company press release.

The companies’ initial agreement was announced in June 2020 and involved Catalent providing aseptic vial filling and packaging from its Bloomington site to support production of an initial 100 million doses of Moderna’s vaccine.

“We appreciate this expanded collaboration with Catalent and the dedication of their team,” said Juan Andres, Moderna’s chief technical operations and quality officer, in the press release. “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,” added Alessandro Maselli, Catalent’s president and chief operating officer, in the press release. “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.”

Source: Catalent