Lonza and Moderna to Expand Their COVID-19 Vaccine Drug Substance Manufacturing Collaboration

Lonza and Moderna announced on June 2, 2021 that they are expanding their collaboration to extend the drug substance manufacturing of Moderna’s COVID-19 vaccine with the addition of a new manufacturing line at Lonza’s Geleen, Netherlands, site.

The new line, which is expected to be fully operational by the end of 2021, complements Lonza’s existing drug substance production network while providing an additional 300 million doses per year, at a 50 ug dose, Lonza said in a company press release.

The new addition comes after the companies announced a 10-year strategic collaboration agreement for the manufacturing of Moderna’s COVID-19 vaccine in May 2020.

“Once more, we are pleased to leverage our network as we expand our collaboration with Moderna further to extend our mRNA [messenger RNA] manufacturing to Lonza Geleen,” said Jean-Christophe Hyvert, president, Biologics and Cell & Gene, Lonza, in the press release. “The extension reflects the continuing growth of our strategic collaboration with Moderna. We are proud to play our part in controlling the COVID-19 pandemic and look forward to bringing to bear our experience from Portsmouth, [NH] and Visp, [Switzerland] at our Geleen site in the Netherlands.”

Source: Lonza