Moderna, Inc., a biotechnology company pioneering messenger RNA therapeutics and vaccines, and Aldevron, LLC, the leading provider of high-quality plasmid DNA, mRNA and recombinant proteins necessary for vaccines, gene and cell therapy, gene editing and diagnostic applications, have announced their expanded collaboration in support of the Moderna Covid-19 vaccine and additional programmes in Moderna’s clinical development pipeline.

Specifically, Aldevron will supply plasmid DNA to serve as the genetic template for generating the Covid-19 mRNA vaccine and other investigational programmes in Moderna’s pipeline.

“Aldevron has been a long-standing partner of Moderna. We appreciate their collaboration and their expertise in the biologics space,” said Juan Andres, chief technical operations and quality officer of Moderna. “We look forward to our ongoing work with this expanded partnership.”

“Aldevron’s support of the Moderna pipeline spans nearly a decade, and we’re incredibly proud of the trust they’ve placed in us” commented Kevin Ballinger, chief executive officer of Aldevron. “Our deep experience, coupled with enhanced operational efficiencies and recent capacity expansion place us in an excellent position to support Moderna’s efforts – especially during this critical time. We look forward to expanding our strategic partnership to serve a pipeline of important new programmes in the future.”

Aldevron’s production of DNA continues to take place in its 70,000 sq ft GMP facility located in Fargo, North Dakota. Buildout and validation of an additional 189,000 sq ft expansion to the GMP facility on Aldevron’s 14-acre Breakthrough Campus has been completed, enabling additional manufacturing capacity.

Aldevron is a premier manufacturing partner in the global genetic medicine field. Founded in 1998 by Michael Chambers and John Ballantyne, the company provides critical nucleic acids and proteins used to make gene and cell therapies, DNA and RNA vaccines, and gene editing technologies.

In 10 years since its inception, Moderna has transformed from a science research-stage company advancing programs in the field of messenger RNA (mRNA), to an enterprise with a diverse clinical portfolio of vaccines and therapeutics across six modalities, a broad intellectual property portfolio in areas including mRNA and lipid nanoparticle formulation, and an integrated manufacturing plant that allows for both clinical and commercial production at scale and at unprecedented speed.