Catalent and Moderna Collaborate on Fill/Finish Manufacturing of COVID-19 Vaccine Candidate

Catalent and Moderna announced on June 25, 2020 that they are entering into a collaboration for the large-scale, commercial fill/finish manufacturing of Moderna’s mRNA-based COVID-19 vaccine candidate (mRNA-1273) at Catalent’s biologics facility in Bloomington, IN.

Under the terms of the agreement, Catalent will offer vial filling, packaging capacity, and additional staffing at the site to support the production of the initial 100 million doses of the vaccine candidate to supply the US market beginning in the third quarter of 2020, a Catalent press release said. Catalent will also provide clinical supply services from its facilities in Philadelphia, PA, including packaging and labeling and storage and distribution for Moderna’s Phase III clinical study.

“We appreciate this collaboration with Catalent and the flexibility of their team to deliver critical fill-finish capacity for mRNA-1273 at unprecedented speed,” said Juan Andres, Moderna’s chief technical operations and quality officer, in the press release. “It has been wonderful to see both teams working together to support the common good.”

“Catalent is proud to partner with Moderna in its work to address this critical public health need,” added John Chiminski, chair and CEO of Catalent, in the press release. “Catalent’s proven expertise in manufacturing scale-up and commercial production are well suited to support Moderna’s efforts to prepare for wide-scale supply of this vaccine candidate so that it is available if appropriate to address the pandemic.”

Source: Catalent