On Oct. 8, 2020, Moderna 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 was 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 envisioned 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.