Covid-19 roundup: Mod­er­na en­lists Catal­ent as man­u­fac­tur­ing part­ner, se­cur­ing fill-fin­ish ca­pac­i­ty for the first 100M dos­es

With Phase III tri­als now out­lined, lock­ing in a net­work of pro­duc­tion part­ners ap­pears to be top of mind for the lead­ing Covid-19 vac­cine de­vel­op­ers. In the lat­est move, Mod­er­na has named Catal­ent a col­lab­o­ra­tor for the large-scale, com­mer­cial fill-fin­ish man­u­fac­tur­ing of its mR­NA-based can­di­date.

Catal­ent — which has signed deals with As­traZeneca, J&J and Arc­turus — will pro­vide vial fill­ing and pack­ag­ing ca­pac­i­ty for an ini­tial 100 mil­lion dos­es in­tend­ed to sup­ply the US mar­ket start­ing the third quar­ter of this year. Ad­di­tion­al staffing at its Bloom­ing­ton, In­di­ana site will be de­ployed to guar­an­tee round-the-clock, 24/7 op­er­a­tions.

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