DARPA Awards Moderna up to $56 Million to Enable Small-Scale, Rapid Mobile Manufacturing of Nucleic Acid Vaccines & Therapeut...
October 08 2020 - 6:50AM
Business Wire
Award part of DARPA’s Nucleic Acids On-Demand
World-Wide (NOW) initiative to develop a medical countermeasure
manufacturing platform
Conference call to be held on Thursday, October
8 at 8:00 a.m. ET
Moderna, Inc., (Nasdaq: MRNA) a biotechnology company pioneering
messenger RNA (mRNA) therapeutics and vaccines to create a new
generation of transformative medicines for patients, today
announced an agreement for a commitment of up to $56 million from
the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) to fund
development of a mobile manufacturing protype leveraging Moderna’s
existing manufacturing technology that is capable of rapidly
producing vaccines and therapeutics. The agreement builds on a
previous assistance grant with DARPA established in 2013.
The award is part of DARPA’s Nucleic Acids On Demand World-Wide
(NOW) initiative to develop a mobile, end-to-end automated
manufacturing platform to provide in-field, just-in-time
manufacturing of Good Manufacturing Practice (GMP) quality nucleic
acid (including mRNA) vaccines and therapeutics intended to deliver
near-instantaneous protections and treatments to both military
personnel and local populations. The design envisions a
manufacturing unit capable of producing hundreds of doses of
medicines in a matter of days in a 6 foot x 6 foot x 6 foot (1.8m x
1.8m x 1.8m) container in remote locations around the world.
“We are pleased to continue our collaboration with DARPA with a
new award and we look forward to building on our experience rapidly
designing and manufacturing vaccines as demonstrated with
mRNA-1273, our COVID-19 vaccine currently in a Phase 3 study, and
mRNA-4157, our personalized cancer vaccine currently in a Phase 2
study,” said Stéphane Bancel, Chief Executive Officer of Moderna.
“This new award will allow us to explore the reach of our
technology to potentially enable fast, in-field, automated
manufacturing of vaccines and therapeutics for both military
personnel and civilians around the world in a container that can be
deployed rapidly to make customized vaccines or therapeutics. The
ability to make medicines in a mobile unit could have an important
impact on the ability to respond to future viral challenges.
Moderna is committed to being part of the solution in preventing
future pandemics.”
DARPA’s financial support of the NOW program is part the
Agency’s commitment to creating innovative biotechnological
approaches to rapidly detect, characterize and mitigate threats
from newly emerging or engineered pathogens.
Conference Call and Webcast Information
Moderna will host a live conference call and webcast at 8:00
a.m. ET on Thursday, October 8, 2020. To access the live conference
call, please dial 866-922-5184 (domestic) or 409-937-8950
(international) and refer to conference ID 5596196. A webcast of
the call will also be available under “Events and Presentations” in
the Investors section of the Moderna website at
investors.modernatx.com. The archived webcast will be available on
Moderna’s website approximately two hours after the conference
call.
About Moderna
Moderna is advancing messenger RNA (mRNA) science to create a
new class of transformative medicines for patients. mRNA medicines
are designed to direct the body’s cells to produce intracellular,
membrane or secreted proteins that can have a therapeutic or
preventive benefit and have the potential to address a broad
spectrum of diseases. Moderna’s platform builds on continuous
advances in basic and applied mRNA science, delivery technology and
manufacturing, providing the Company the capability to pursue in
parallel a robust pipeline of new development candidates. Moderna
is developing therapeutics and vaccines for infectious diseases,
immuno-oncology, rare diseases, cardiovascular diseases, and
autoimmune and inflammatory diseases, independently and with
strategic collaborators.
Headquartered in Cambridge, Mass., Moderna currently has
strategic alliances for development programs with AstraZeneca PLC
and Merck & Co., Inc., as well as the Defense Advanced Research
Projects Agency (DARPA), an agency of the U.S. Department of
Defense; the Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority
(BARDA), a division of the Office of the Assistant Secretary for
Preparedness and Response (ASPR) within the U.S. Department of
Health and Human Services (HHS) and the Coalition for Epidemic
Preparedness Innovations (CEPI). Moderna has been named a top
biopharmaceutical employer by Science for the past five years. To
learn more, visit www.modernatx.com.
Forward Looking Statements
This press release contains forward-looking statements within
the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of
1995, as amended, including statements regarding the Company’s
collaboration with DARPA to develop a miniaturized manufacturing
protype capable of rapidly producing vaccines and therapeutics. In
some cases, forward-looking statements can be identified by
terminology such as “will,” “may,” “should,” “could”, “expects,”
“intends,” “plans,” “aims,” “anticipates,” “believes,” “estimates,”
“predicts,” “potential,” “continue,” or the negative of these terms
or other comparable terminology, although not all forward-looking
statements contain these words. The forward-looking statements in
this press release are neither promises nor guarantees, and you
should not place undue reliance on these forward-looking statements
because they involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties, and
other factors, many of which are beyond Moderna’s control and which
could cause actual results to differ materially from those
expressed or implied by these forward-looking statements. These
risks, uncertainties, and other factors include, among others, the
fact that there has never been a commercial product utilizing mRNA
technology approved for use, and those other risks and
uncertainties described under the heading “Risk Factors” in
Moderna’s most recent Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q filed with the
U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and in subsequent
filings made by Moderna with the SEC, which are available on the
SEC’s website at www.sec.gov. Except as required by law, Moderna
disclaims any intention or responsibility for updating or revising
any forward-looking statements contained in this press release in
the event of new information, future developments or otherwise.
These forward-looking statements are based on Moderna’s current
expectations and speak only as of the date hereof.
View source
version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20201008005279/en/
Moderna Media: Colleen Hussey Director, Corporate Communications
617-335-1374 Colleen.Hussey@modernatx.com Investors: Lavina
Talukdar Head of Investor Relations 617-209-5834
Lavina.Talukdar@modernatx.com
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