Moderna (MRNA+4.7%) hit a 52-week high today on the news of an additional agreement with Swiss contract manufacturer Lonza (OTCPK:LZAGY+0.3%) to ramp up the drug substance manufacturing for its global supply chain.
The highlight of the announcement was the commissioning of a new production line at Lonza’s Geleen site in the Netherlands to support 300M doses of an updated booster variant vaccine candidate at a 50-µg dose subject to regulatory approval.
Thanks to another agreement with Spain’s Rovi, Moderna now expects to source 600M 50-µg doses from the EU as production lines are expected to become operational before the end of the year.
"We're assuming that as of 2022, we are going to have a mix of dose levels on the market," Reuters quoted a spokeswoman from Moderna as saying.
Citing initial Phase 2 data in previously vaccinated people, the company said a single 50-µg dose vaccine given as a booster increased neutralizing antibody responses against SARS-CoV-2 and two variants of concern: B.1.351 (first identified in South Africa) and P.1 (first identified in Brazil).
In December, Moderna obtained FDA’s emergency use authorization for its 100-µg dose COVID-19 vaccine.
The announcement of half a dose COVID-19 vaccine as a booster shot comes as the National Institutes of Health begins a study to evaluate the use of different COVID-19 vaccine combinations to boost immunization against the virus.