VISP, Switzerland — Lonza is confident that U.S. and Swiss plants it is building to help make Moderna’s COVID-19 vaccine candidate will be ready for commercial production this year, executives at the Swiss company said last week.
New production lines at Lonza’s site in Portsmouth, N.H., aim to start making vaccine ingredients in November, while three lines in Visp, deep in a valley in the Swiss Alps — to supply 300 million vaccine doses annually — should begin delivering by December.
There is no approved COVID-19 vaccine yet, but several are in advanced trials, including from Pfizer Inc., Johnson & Johnson and Moderna, whose candidate relies on technology never previously approved that enlists human cells to help trigger an immune response.
Torsten Schmidt, who heads Lonza’s Visp facility, where Moderna’s $210 million production lines are about 50% completed, said he has secured the equipment needed to avoid any last-minute setbacks.
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