Home health remedies Moderna blueprints plant upgrades to rev up vaccine supply to 3B doses...

Moderna blueprints plant upgrades to rev up vaccine supply to 3B doses a year

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Moderna is angling to produce upward of 1 billion doses of its COVID-19 vaccine in 2021, but that’s nothing compared to what it has in store for next year.

Thanks to planned investments across its own U.S. facilities and those of its manufacturing partners in Europe, Moderna now expects to supply between 800 million to 1 billion doses of its COVID-19 vaccine this year—and that’s just the tip of the iceberg. By 2022, the company could supply up to 3 billion doses worldwide.

Moderna will use its own cash for the upgrades, which it aims to start paying out this year. The undisclosed sum should fuel a production ramp-up late into 2021 and early 2022, the company said Thursday morning.

Stateside, the cash will tee up a 50% increase in drug substance production at Moderna’s own facilities. In Switzerland, CDMO Lonza is expected to double drug substance manufacturing from its Visp plant, while Rovi will more than double formulation, fill-finish and drug substance production at its facility in Spain.

RELATED: The next big COVID-19 bottleneck? A shortage of trained vaccine workers, experts say

The supply boost will come in addition to Moderna’s recently expanded fill-finish deal with contract manufacturer Catalent and the production tie-up with Sanofi it unveiled this week. Moderna says it’s in advanced talks for other manufacturing pacts, too.

One potential clue about a Moderna partner-to-be? White House officials earlier this month set up a meeting between Moderna and specialty drugmaker Nexus Pharmaceuticals to discuss a potential manufacturing deal.

Moderna clarified that its 3 billion dose target may shift based on the mix of vaccines it’s ultimately tasked to supply. The biotech has won FDA and EMA authorization for a 100-microgram dose of its mRNA vaccine, which is given as two injections, but it’s also working on lower-dose formulas for variant-specific boosters and pediatric vaccines.

If those shots pass muster in the clinic, Moderna could potentially be on the hook for a mélange of single-dose boosters, its standard two-course vaccination series and a two-dose regimen for kids, which may come at a lower dose.

The company says it will be able to offer a firmer supply estimate for 2022 as it hones its booster-shot business strategy and more data from its variant studies roll in.

RELATED: Moderna cuts COVID-19 vaccine deliveries to Canada, U.K. amid European supply struggles

Manufacturing delays and concerns about rare but serious blood clots have cast a shadow over AstraZeneca and Johnson & Johnson’s adenovirus-based shots in Europe. Meanwhile, the EU recently launched legal action against AZ for failing to deliver its promised supply of COVID-19 vaccines, while Italian daily La Stampa reported in mid-April that the EU wouldn’t re-up on its J&J and AZ contracts once they expire at the end of the year.

As a result, Pfizer and Moderna will likely take an upsized role in supplying their mRNA shots to the bloc. To make sure it can meet its deliveries, Moderna says it will also use a piece of the investment to increase its “safety stock” of raw materials and finished product. 

Meanwhile, Moderna’s vaccine could be looking at warmer days ahead. The company says it has ongoing development data on its authorized vaccine formula that could support three month’s refrigerated storage for the shot in “alternative formats.” Moderna’s vaccine is authorized now for up to one month of storage at fridge temps of 2 degrees to 8 degrees Celsius (35.6 degrees to 46.4 degrees Fahrenheit) and can be kept for up to seven months at freezer temps of negative 20 degrees C (negative 4 degrees F). 

This isn’t the first time Moderna dialed up its production target this year. In February, the company said it was on track to supply a minimum of 700 million doses this year, up from a previous baseline of 500 million doses. At the time, it said it would shoot for a high-end target of 1.4 billion doses, or perhaps even 2 billion, in 2022.

As of Wednesday, April 28, Moderna had delivered around 128 million vaccine doses to the U.S, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The company could reel in some $14 billion in vaccine revenues this year, Bernstein analyst Ronny Gal predicted earlier this month.

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