By Dhirendra Tripathi
Investing – Moderna (NASDAQ:MRNA) shares rose more than 2% Monday as the company sought to strengthen its global presence as a key supplier of Covid-19 vaccines by expanding its agreement with Aldevron, its existing supplier of plasmid DNA.
Moderna and Pfizer (NYSE:PFE)-BioNTech's (NASDAQ:BNTX) Covid-19 vaccines, based on mRNA technology, have been found to be most efficient in developing antibodies against the coronavirus.
Aldevron’s production of DNA is already taking place in its 70,000 square foot facility in Fargo, North Dakota. Buildout and validation of an additional 189,000 square foot expansion has been completed, enabling additional manufacturing capacity.
The company, founded in 1998, will supply plasmid DNA to serve as the genetic template for generating the Covid-19 mRNA vaccine and other investigational programs in Moderna’s pipeline.
Aldevron provides critical nucleic acids and proteins used to make gene and cell therapies. It is a leading provider of high-quality plasmid DNA, mRNA and recombinant proteins necessary for vaccines, gene and cell therapy, gene editing and diagnostic applications.
Moderna has forecast supplying 800 million to 1 billion doses of its Covid-19 vaccine in 2021 with another 2 billion doses to be supplied in 2021, the production coming from its own and partners’ facilities.