Moderna, a biotechnology company pioneering messenger RNA (mRNA) therapeutics and vaccines, announced that the Ministry of Food and Drug Safety of Korea (MFDS) has issued a marketing authorization for Spikevax®, Moderna’s COVID-19 vaccine (mRNA-1273) manufactured by Samsung Biologics, a leading global CDMO providing fully integrated end-to-end contract development and manufacturing services.
Moderna COVID-19 Vaccine Manufactured in Korea by Samsung Biologics Receives Marketing Authorization from Ministry of Food and Drug Safety of Korea
This marketing authorization obtained by Moderna Korea officially allows the Moderna’s COVID-19 vaccine manufactured at Samsung Biologics’ local pharmaceutical production facilities to be distributed within Korea and exported to other countries.
In May 2021, Moderna and Samsung Biologics announced the agreement for fill-finish manufacturing of the Moderna COVID-19 vaccine. Upon execution of the deal, Samsung Biologics successfully reduced the overall timeline by leveraging its technology and capabilities, enabling the first batch of Moderna’s COVID-19 vaccine to be released for domestic supply within five months from the signing of the contract. Moderna Korea applied for a full marketing authorization for Spikevax® with the MFDS in early November, and successfully obtained it within a month’s time.
The Philippines and Colombia authorized emergency use of the Moderna COVID-19 vaccine manufactured by Samsung Biologics on November 26 and December 2, respectively.
“We thank the Ministry of Food and Drug Safety of Korea for their decision to approve this marketing authorization. Our partnership with Samsung Biologics for fill-and-finish manufacturing of the Moderna COVID-19 vaccine is helping us continue to scale up our manufacturing capacity outside of the U.S.,” said Stéphane Bancel, Chief Executive Officer of Moderna. “Along with our manufacturing partners, we remain committed to defeating the COVID-19 pandemic.”
“This is truly a significant milestone as we were able to accelerate the approval process in close and prompt collaboration with the Korean government and Moderna, especially under the MFDS’s rigorous screening for the first fill-finish manufacturing of mRNA vaccines in Korea,” said John Rim, CEO of Samsung Biologics. “We were also proud to demonstrate our commitment to providing both quality and agility throughout our processes, and will continue to work closely with our client to stably supply the products especially in light of the increasing importance and demand for vaccines in the battle against the COVID-19 pandemic.”
Moderna has multiple strategic partners for fill-finish manufacturing. In the U.S., this includes Catalent, Inc. (NYSE: CTLT), Baxter BioPharma Solutions and Sanofi . Outside of the U.S., this includes Rovi in Spain, Recipharm in France and Samsung Biologics in Korea.
About Moderna
In 10 years since its inception, Moderna has transformed from a science research-stage company advancing programs in the field of messenger RNA (mRNA), to an enterprise with a diverse clinical portfolio of vaccines and therapeutics across seven modalities, a broad intellectual property portfolio in areas including mRNA and lipid nanoparticle formulation, and an integrated manufacturing plant that allows for both clinical and commercial production at scale and at unprecedented speed. Moderna maintains alliances with a broad range of domestic and overseas government and commercial collaborators, which has allowed for the pursuit of both groundbreaking science and rapid scaling of manufacturing. Most recently, Moderna’s capabilities have come together to allow the authorized use of one of the earliest and most effective vaccines against the COVID-19 pandemic.
Moderna’s mRNA platform builds on continuous advances in basic and applied mRNA science, delivery technology and manufacturing, and has allowed the development of therapeutics and vaccines for infectious diseases, immuno-oncology, rare diseases, cardiovascular diseases and auto-immune diseases. Moderna has been named a top biopharmaceutical employer by Science for the past seven years.
About Samsung Biologics Co., Ltd.
Samsung Biologics is a fully integrated CDMO offering state-of-the-art contract development, manufacturing, and laboratory testing services. With proven regulatory approvals, the largest capacity, and the fastest throughput, Samsung Biologics is an award-winning partner of choice and is uniquely able to support the development and manufacturing of biologics products at every stage of the process while meeting the evolving needs of biopharmaceutical companies worldwide.
