Lonza and Moderna Expand Collaboration to Produce COVID-19 Vaccines in the Netherlands

Swiss multinational Lonza is strengthening its existing collaboration with US-based Moderna by launching a new COVID-19 Vaccine Moderna production line in the Netherlands. The biotech and pharmaceutical company will now manufacture up to 300 million doses at its site in the Brightlands Campus in Geleen.

“We thank our manufacturing partners for their work and their commitment and are proud to be building on the strong foundations we have established with Lonza to further increase our manufacturing capabilities in Europe” said Juan Andres, Chief Technical Operations and Quality Officer at Moderna.

In May 2020, Moderna and Lonza announced a 10-year strategic partnership to produce up to one billion doses of its COVID-19 vaccine annually for global use. The new production line will compliment Lonza’s current manufacturing of the COVID-19 Vaccine Moderna.

“Once more, we are pleased to leverage our network as we expand our collaboration with Moderna further to extend our mRNA manufacturing to Lonza Geleen,” said Jean-Christophe Hyvert, President, Biologics and Cell & Gene of Lonza. “We are proud to play our part in controlling the COVID-19 pandemic and look forward to bringing to bear our experience from [the U.S.] and [Switzerland] at our Geleen site in the Netherlands.”

Dutch capacity to fill a global vaccination need

In January, COVID-19 Vaccine Moderna was approved for use within the EU. Thanks to Lonza’s existing infrastructure within the Brightlands Chemelot Campus, it will be able to ramp up operations of the new production line quickly and expects to be fully operational by the end of 2021.

Lonza’s state-of-the-art facility at the Brightlands Campus supports all phases of clinical development and is capable of manufacturing commercial cell therapy products. The biotech and pharmaceutical company employs 350 people in the Netherlands across multiple locations and the company expects to recruit new employees at the Brightlands Chemical Campus in Geleen in the next months.

Lonza and Moderna tap into the Netherlands’ established life sciences & health sector

With more than 300 private-public partnerships bolstered by a ‘quadruple helix’ approach to collaboration which includes the support of government, industry and researchers, the Netherlands’ life sciences & health sector is flourishing. The country also has key resources to bring research and development to life, such as the local presence of the European Medicines Agency (EMA) for regulation. The EMA is also the primary body responsible for approving COVID vaccines in the EU.

About Lonza

Lonza is a global biopharma firm based out of Switzerland with a presence in 37 countries. In 2017, Lonza established itself in the Netherlands with its acquisition of PharmaCell, a company with notable success in cell and gene therapy and regenerative medicine. At the Brightlands Chemelot Campus, Lonza works on life-saving therapies to combat diseases such as cancer.

About Moderna

For over a decade, American pharma and biotech company Moderna has been advancing the field of messenger RNA (mRNA), growing into one of the world’s leading vaccine and therapeutics companies. Its recent development of COVID-19 Vaccine Moderna was one of the earliest and most effective achievements in the fight against the COVID-19 pandemic.

Source: Invest In HollandLonzaModernaHet Financieele Dagblad [Dutch only]

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