Moderna, Thermo Fisher sign manufacturing agreement for Spikevax vaccine

Moderna has entered into a 15-year collaboration agreement with Thermo Fisher Scientific to enable dedicated large-scale US manufacturing of Spikevax, the former’s Covid-19 vaccine as well as other investigational messenger RNA (mRNA) medicines in its pipeline.

The agreement is said to make use of exclusive commercial fill-finish manufacturing capacity in the US for mRNA vaccines and therapies.

Juan Andres — Moderna chief technical operations and quality officer said: “Thermo Fisher continues to be a trusted partner, bringing a full range of products and services that have enabled us to deliver innovative medicines at an unprecedented speed and scale.

“We are pleased to further expand our collaboration with Thermo Fisher as a long-term manufacturing partner that will enable us to continue to build on our mRNA platform and pipeline.”

Thermo Fisher and Moderna have been partners for many years to support the latter’s development pipeline with clinical research as well as contract manufacturing services. Included in these are the rapid scale-up of aseptic fill-finish services and packaging of Moderna’s Covid-19 vaccine.

The expanded agreement between the firms will see Thermo Fisher offer dedicated capacity for a variety of aseptic fill-finish services such as lyophilized and liquid filling among others. Additionally, Thermo Fisher will offer inspection, labelling, as well as final packaging services.

Michel Lagarde — Thermo Fisher Scientific executive vice president and chief operating officer said: “Moderna’s innovation in mRNA technology has been pivotal in the global response to the pandemic and we are proud and privileged to support Moderna over the last decade.

“In expanding our strategic partnership, Moderna will further leverage our scale and depth of capabilities to continue to transform its mRNA platform and bring new breakthrough medicines to patients around the world.”