Moderna (MRNA) Inks Vaccine Manufacturing Deal With Resilience

Moderna (NASDAQ:MRNA), Inc. MRNA and the newly founded manufacturing and technology company, National Resilience, Inc. (Resilience), signed a multi-year agreement for manufacturing of the drug substance for Moderna’s COVID-19 vaccine.

Per the terms of the agreement, Resilience will produce messenger RNA (mRNA) for Moderna’s COVID-19 vaccine at its facility in Mississauga, Ontario in Canada. The vaccine will then be distributed worldwide.

Currently, Moderna is seeking “full” approval for its COVID-19 vaccine, mRNA-1273, in the United States. A potential approval in the United States may lead to approval in other countries amid the pandemic. The agreement with Resilience will help the company to support the growing demand for its vaccine globally.

Please note that Resilience was founded last year and is focused on building a sustainable network of high-tech, end-to-end manufacturing solutions that can support manufacturing of the drugs quickly, safely, and at scale.

Moderna also has similar agreements in place with other companies including Sanofi (NASDAQ:SNY) SNY, Catalent (NYSE:CTLT) CTLT, Thermo Fisher Scientific TMO, and Rovi to support the manufacturing and packaging of its COVID-19 vaccine.

Moderna is also planning to construct a state-of-the-art mRNA vaccine manufacturing facility in Canada and signed a Memorandum of Understanding with Canada’s government last month for the same. The company has also started the expansion of the Moderna Technology Center in Norwood, MA to transform it from a production and lab space to an industrial technology center.

These developments on the manufacturing front will likely help Moderna to support the development of its mRNA-based vaccines and therapies targeting various indications for clinical as well as commercial purposes. The company plans to deliver an aggregate of 800 million to 1 billion doses of mRNA-1273 in 2021. It expects to increase its global capacity for the COVID-19 vaccine to up to 2 billion doses in 2022 in case of production of 100 microgram doses or up to 3 billion doses in case of production of only the booster dose of the vaccine at 50 microgram level.

Shares of Moderna have skyrocketed 304.5% so far this year compared with the industry’s rise of 2.3%.

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Moderna’s COVID-19 vaccine is authorized for emergency/conditional/temporary use in several countries including the United States and Europe. While in the United States it is available for adults only, the vaccine can be administered to adolescents as well in Europe. The company is seeking authorization for use of its vaccine in adolescents in the United States as well as a “full” approval in adults. A third or booster dose of the vaccine is already authorized for immunocompromised individuals in the United States and may get authorization for all adults soon in the country and in Europe.

The company’s vaccine generated sales of nearly $6 billion in the first half of 2021. The company expects total COVID-19 vaccine revenues to be approximately $19.2 billion for full-year 2021.

The agreements to manufacture the drug substance, fill-finish of vials, and others help Moderna to focus on innovation of its pipeline, especially COVID-19 vaccine booster doses, which are still being modified for coronavirus variants.

Zacks Rank

Moderna currently sports a Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy). You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank stocks here.

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