Moderna Inc, a biotechnology company pioneering messenger RNA (mRNA) therapeutics and vaccines; and Recipharm, a leading contract development and manufacturing organization, confirmed that following the European Medicines Agency’s (EMA) Committee for Human Medicines (CHMP) approval of the Recipharm Monts site on June 11, 2021, drug product manufacture of the Moderna Covid-19 vaccine at the site in France has already started.

“We are proud to be working with Recipharm to build industrial production capacity in France in support of Europe’s vaccination campaign,” said Stephane Bancel, CEO of Moderna. “France is at the heart of European innovation in healthcare and will play an important role in Moderna’s strategic growth plan.”

“Our collaboration with Moderna has created a strong foundation for vaccine production in France, leveraging our manufacturing excellence to ensure the timely delivery of the Moderna Covid-19 vaccine to Europe,” said Marc Funk, CEO of Recipharm.

Moderna’s partnership with Recipharm is reflective of the Company’s commitment to expanding its global manufacturing capacity. Investments made earlier this year are expected to enable a doubling of drug substance manufacturing in Europe. When completed, the investments are expected to also result in an increase in safety stock of raw materials and finished product used to deliver committed volumes.

The European Commission granted a conditional marketing authorization for Covid-19 Vaccine Moderna, based upon the recommendation of the European Medicines Agency (EMA) for use of the Covid-19 Vaccine Moderna for active immunization to prevent Covid-19 caused by SARS-CoV-2 virus in individuals 18 years of age and older.

The Moderna Covid-19 Vaccine is an mRNA vaccine against Covid-19 encoding for a prefusion stabilized form of the Spike (S) protein. Moderna has received emergency (or other conditional, interim or provisional) authorization for use of its Covid-19 vaccine in adults from health agencies in 49 countries and an Emergency Use Listing from the World Health Organization. Moderna has filed for emergency (or other conditional, interim or provisional) authorization for use of its Covid-19 vaccine in adolescents with health agencies in the European Union, Canada, US, Switzerland and Japan.

Moderna’s mRNA platform builds on continuous advances in basic and applied mRNA science, delivery technology and manufacturing, and has allowed the development of therapeutics and vaccines for infectious diseases, immuno-oncology, rare diseases, cardiovascular diseases and auto-immune diseases. Today, 24 development programmes are underway across these therapeutic areas, with 14 programmes having entered the clinic.