COVID Drug Strategies
June 9, 2020Evolution Insights: The Race for a COVID -19 Vaccine
June 16, 2020
Lonza aims to be making vaccine ingredients by July and have production lines ready
by November, some 4-6 weeks ahead of plans. In May, they were enlisted by Moderna for
a 10-year manufacturing contract and then selected as a finalist alongside companies
such as: AstraZeneca, Merck, Pfizer and Johnson & Johnson for 'Operation Warp Speed'
- a US initiative to expedite COVID-19 vaccines to the public.
Lonza aims to be making vaccine ingredients by July and have production lines ready
by November, some 4-6 weeks ahead of plans. In May, they were enlisted by Moderna for
a 10-year manufacturing contract and then selected as a finalist alongside companies
such as: AstraZeneca, Merck, Pfizer and Johnson & Johnson for 'Operation Warp Speed'
- a US initiative to expedite COVID-19 vaccines to the public.
Last week Moderna’s experimental COVID-19
vaccine entered phase II clinical trial and dosed
initial participants in a 600-patient study. The Phase
III trial begins in July and includes a study of 30,000.
The Fast Track designation and the start of the
Phase II trial means that mRNA-1273 may be the
first vaccine to be approved and launched for the
Covid-19 pandemic, as it is the only vaccine that
has received FDA approval to initiate a Phase II trial,
therefore placing it ahead of all other candidate
Covid-19 vaccines in development.
Challenges:
- Hiring staff to operate production lines.
- Possible equipment shortages.
- mRNA technology has yet to be approved in
medicine and is unknown territory.
An mRNA facility has a multitude of advantages including
being smaller, cheaper and faster to scale
up, in comparison to traditional biological production
lines. However, ingredients for an mRNA vaccine
are also very specialized, requiring production
of mRNA and encapsulation inside lipid nanoparticles
for delivery to humans.
Finance
- Lonza is financing the first $60-$70 million commercial
production line in Visp.
- Moderna is paying for the first U.S. production
line, and up to three more at Lonza facilities in
Portsmouth and Visp. Moderna recieved $483
million from the U.S. government and $1 billion
in new capital.
Combined capacity could produce
ingredients for 600 million to 1
billion vaccine doses annually
Moderna is clearly very confident in its ability to
develop a Covid-19 vaccine. However, there is also
the issue of getting the vaccine to the public in an
efficient manner. Upon finding a vaccine, Moderna
would face enormous pressure to produce the
vaccine as quickly as possible. Lonza is preparing
to mitigate these challenges.
