Biotechnology company Moderna Inc (Nasdaq:MRNA) and Catalent Inc (NYSE:CTLT), a provider of development and manufacturing solutions for drugs, biologics, cell and gene therapies, as well as consumer health products, on Wednesday declared the expansion of a strategic collaboration to dedicate a new high-speed vial filling line for the manufacture of Moderna's COVID-19 vaccine at Catalent's biologics facility in Bloomington, Indiana.

The companies had announced in June 2020 that Catalent would provide aseptic vial filling and packaging from its Bloomington site, including additional staffing required for 24x7 manufacturing to support production of an initial 100 million doses of Moderna's vaccine. Moderna announced on 29 March 2021 that this milestone was achieved.

Under the newly expanded agreement, Catalent will now dedicate to Moderna's use a new high-speed filling line at the site through to June 2023.

This filling line can be used to manufacture the COVID-19 vaccine and potentially additional investigational programmes in Moderna's clinical pipeline. Catalent will also provide inspection, labelling, cartoning and final packaging for these programmes.