Portsmouth Company to be Part of COVID-19 Vaccine Manufacturing

It’s not been approved by the FDA yet, but it looks like the Lonza Biologics facility at Pease International Tradeport will be one part of the effort to manufacture a COVID-19 vaccine according to seacoastonline.com. Biologics for the vaccine are expected to arrive at the Lonza Biologics facility in June. This doesn’t mean there is a vaccine yet, but when one is approved, they will be ready to go fast to get millions of doses prepared.

Victoria Morgan, head of corporate communications for the Swiss company said, “Lonza anticipates there will be a need to create new roles to manage the additional manufacturing requirements. As this manufacturing platform is extremely efficient, a large number of doses can be produced from a relatively small manufacturing footprint and number of staff.”

Monderna announced on Friday that it is manufacturing a potential COVID-19 vaccine called mRNA-1273 in partnership with Lonza. Monderna is a biotechnology company based in Cambridge, Mass. Moderna’s CEO Sephane Bancel told CNBC that “Our goal is to make the vaccine available around the world.” There is no FDA approved COVID-19 vaccine yet, but it seems that at least different vaccines are being tested around the globe and it’s a race to see who will get there first.

Moderna received a $438 million-dollar contract from the Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority last month to speed up their work towards getting a vaccine through all phases of the trials necessary for FDA approval according to seacoastonline.com. I certainly wish them success if getting that vaccine developed and approved.