Catalent partnering on COVID vaccine effort

BLOOMINGTON, Ind. (Inside INdiana Business) — New Jersey-based Catalent Inc. (NYSE: CTLT) is partnering with a biotechnology company in Massachusetts to manufacture a COVID-19 vaccine candidate. The company says the deal with Moderna Inc. (Nasdaq: MRNA) will involve manufacturing, vial filling and packaging at its biologics facility in Bloomington.

Catalent says the commercial fill-finish manufacturing operations will run 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, which will require additional staffing. However, a specific number of new employees was not provided.

The effort is expected to produce an initial 100 million doses of the vaccine candidate for the U.S. market, beginning in the third quarter.

“Catalent is proud to partner with Moderna in its work to address this critical public health need,” John Chiminski, chief executive officer of Catalent, said in a news release. “Catalent’s proven expertise in manufacturing scale-up and commercial production are well suited to support Moderna’s efforts to prepare for wide-scale supply of this vaccine candidate so that it is available if appropriate to address the pandemic.”

Catalent says it will also provide clinical supply services from its Philadelphia facilities to support Moderna’s Phase 3 clinical study for the vaccine candidate.

In April, Catalent reached a deal with a subsidiary of Johnson & Johnson (NYSE: JNJ) for large scale manufacturing of J&J’s lead COVID-19 vaccine candidate. The company said it plans to add 300 jobs as a result.

Business of Health Reporter Kylie Veleta spotlighted the partnership in a recent edition of the Life Sciences INdiana newsletter, which you can read by clicking here.