MADRID (Reuters) – Spanish contract drugmaker Rovi said on Thursday it will double its capacity to bottle COVID-19 vaccines for Moderna.
Rovi will invest an unspecified amount in new production lines at its factory in the Madrid region, where it bottles, or “fills and finishes” Moderna vaccines for markets others than the United States, the company said in a statement.
The new lines will start operating in the fourth quarter of this year, Rovi said shortly after Moderna announced it would boost its COVID-19 vaccine-making capacity.
“We hope that this extension of the partnership with
Moderna will help us become their long-term manufacturing partner,” Rovi’s Chief Executive Juan López-Belmonte Encina said.
Earlier this month, Rovi signed an agreement with Moderna to make active ingredients for Moderna’s vaccines. So far, the Spanish company bottled the vaccines from ingredients brought in from Switzerland.
(Reporting by Cristina Galan and Inti Landauro; Editing by Ingrid Melander)
