Moderna, Catalent Enter Long-Term Strategic Vax Pact

Moderna, Inc. and Catalent, Inc. expanded 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, IN.

Last June the companies entered an agreement for Catalent to provide aseptic vial filling and packaging from its Bloomington site, including additional staffing required for 24x7 manufacturing to support production of an initial 100 million doses of Moderna’s vaccine. On March 29, Moderna announced this milestone was achieved.

Under the expanded agreement, Catalent will dedicate a new high-speed filling line at the site through June 2023, which can be used to manufacture Moderna’s COVID-19 vaccine and potentially additional investigational programs in its clinical pipeline. Catalent will also provide inspection, labeling, 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 Chief Operating Officer. “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 invested $50 million into this third high-speed vial filling line at Bloomington, which will be completed in April 2021. The ability to dedicate this new line to Moderna will enable the site to free-up capacity on existing lines for other important customer programs.