Swiss company Lonza said it is confident that the new U.S. and Swiss plants it’s building to help make Moderna’s COVID-19 vaccine prospect will be ready for commercial production this year.
New production lines at Lonza’s site in Portsmouth, New Hampshire, aim to start making vaccine ingredients in November.
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Meanwhile, three lines in a valley in the Swiss alps will begin delivering by December. They plan to supply $300 million vaccine doses annually. The facility is nearly 50 percent completed and has obtained the necessary equipment at a fast pace.
The Massachusetts-based drugmaker and Lonza have a 10-year agreement under which Moderna would be able to scale up the production of its mRNA-1273 vaccine candidate up to 1 billion doses per year.
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We’re learning more about how effective the Moderna vaccine may be in older adults. That’s very important since the risk for the virus rises with age. It’s critical that any vaccine be safe and effective in seniors too.