On May 1, 2020, Moderna and Lonza announced a 10-year strategic collaboration agreement to enable larger scale manufacture of Moderna’s mRNA vaccine (mRNA-1273) against the novel coronavirus (SARS-CoV-2) and additional Moderna products in the future.

Under the terms of the agreement, the companies planned to establish manufacturing suites at Lonza’s facilities in the U.S. and Switzerland for the manufacture of mRNA-1273 at both sites. Technology transfer was expected to begin in Jun. 2020, and the companies intended to manufacture the first batches of mRNA-1273 at Lonza U.S. in July 2020.