CAMBRIDGE, Mass.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Moderna, Inc., (Nasdaq: MRNA) a biotechnology company pioneering messenger RNA (mRNA) therapeutics and vaccines, today reaffirmed its commitment to job creation in Massachusetts. Over the last year, Moderna nearly doubled the size of its workforce, from approximately 830 employees as of March 31, 2020 to approximately 1,500 employees as of March 31, 2021. In the last year, Moderna created more than 650 new jobs at its manufacturing facility in Norwood, Massachusetts. The Company continues to expand in Norwood and Cambridge.
On June 15, Moderna was awarded a tax incentive from the Massachusetts Life Sciences Center (MLSC) based on its commitment to hire 155 new full-time equivalent employees in 2021 and retaining that headcount through 2025. The MLSC Tax Incentive Program awards companies engaged in life science research and development, commercialization and manufacturing with the goal of creating new, long-term jobs in the state of Massachusetts.
“I would like to thank the Massachusetts Life Sciences Center and the Baker-Polito Administration for this recognition of our commitment to creating new, high-tech employment opportunities in Massachusetts. We have been based in the Commonwealth since our founding more than 10 years ago and we opened our manufacturing facility in Norwood in 2018. This facility has been integral to our long-term strategy and helped anchor our manufacturing capacity as we worked relentlessly to combat the COVID-19 pandemic,” said Stéphane Bancel, Chief Executive Officer of Moderna. “Massachusetts continues to be the global leader in the biotech industry and having our manufacturing facility in Norwood has enabled close collaboration with our research and development teams in Cambridge. It’s also allowed us to work with state and local partners and to leverage the incredible innovation and diverse talent from the Massachusetts life sciences and technology sectors. We are proud to create new biotech and manufacturing jobs in Massachusetts as we work to develop new mRNA medicines.”
Moderna recently announced an expansion of the Moderna Technology Center in Norwood, including more than doubling of space to transform the facility from a production and lab space to an industrial technology center. This expansion includes increasing the Company’s production and lab space from approximately 300,000 square feet to approximately 650,000 square feet through renovation of existing space and entering into a long-term lease of a 240,000 square foot building located on the same campus for expansion of its commercial and clinical activities. The expansion also includes an increase in Moderna’s technical development capacity and preclinical production capability.
The Company’s expansion in Norwood will support a 50% increase in production of the Moderna COVID-19 Vaccine from its manufacturing site, which is expected to ramp up in late 2021 and early 2022. On April 29, Moderna announced an investment at its owned and partnered manufacturing facilities that it expects will increase 2022 global capacity to up to 3 billion doses of its COVID-19 vaccine, depending upon the mix between the authorized Moderna COVID-19 Vaccine at the 100 μg dose level and potentially lower doses of the Company’s variant booster candidates and pediatric vaccines, if authorized.
Moderna opened its Norwood manufacturing site in July 2018. Digital technology is integrated throughout the site—the entire research, development and production process incorporates advanced robotics, machine learning, artificial intelligence and creative design. Designed to Current Good Manufacturing Practices (cGMP), this expansion gives the Company the capacity and flexibility to support the manufacture of the Company’s commercial COVID-19 vaccine and the other programs in Moderna’s clinical development pipeline. In addition, the site was built with attention to environmental sustainability and to qualify for LEED certification.
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 six 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. Today, 24 development programs are underway across these therapeutic areas, with 14 programs having entered the clinic. Moderna has been named a top biopharmaceutical employer by Science for the past six years. To learn more, visit www.modernatx.com.
Forward Looking Statements
This press release contains forward-looking statements within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995, as amended, including regarding: the Company’s development of a vaccine to protect against the SARS-CoV-2 virus (mRNA-1273, also referred to as the Moderna COVID-19 Vaccine); anticipated production of the Moderna COVID-19 Vaccine in 2021 and 2022; and the Company’s hiring and employment plans within the state of Massachusetts. The forward-looking statements in this press release are neither promises nor guarantees, and you should not place undue reliance on these forward-looking statements because they involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties, and other factors, many of which are beyond Moderna’s control and which could cause actual results to differ materially from those expressed or implied by these forward-looking statements. These risks, uncertainties, and other factors include those other risks and uncertainties described under the heading “Risk Factors” in Moderna’s most recent Annual Report on Form 10-K filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and in subsequent filings made by Moderna with the SEC, which are available on the SEC’s website at www.sec.gov. Except as required by law, Moderna disclaims any intention or responsibility for updating or revising any forward-looking statements contained in this press release in the event of new information, future developments or otherwise. These forward-looking statements are based on Moderna’s current expectations and speak only as of the date hereof.
