The company has a commercial footprint in 56 countries worldwide and is planning to expand its presence in 10 additional markets this year
Moderna to commercialise Spikevax in Latin America. (Credit: Mufid Majnun from Pixabay)
Moderna has partnered with Latin America-based pharmaceutical company Adium Pharma to support the commercialisation of its Covid-19 vaccine, Spikevax, across the region.
The US drugmaker has reached a distribution service agreement with Adium, which covers 18 countries in Latin America, including Brazil, Mexico, Colombia, and Argentina.
The move follows Moderna’s recent plans to expand across 10 additional markets, four in the Asia-Pacific region, and six in Europe, this year.
In Asia-Pacific, the company would foray into Hong Kong, Malaysia, Singapore, and Taiwan. In Europe, it would enter Belgium, Denmark, the Netherlands, Norway, Poland, and Sweden.
Moderna CEO Stéphane Bancel said: “Our new partnership with Adium will help ensure broad access and delivery of our Moderna Covid-19 vaccine to people across Latin America. A presence in Latin America is a key part of our global commercial strategy.
“These partnerships and the expansion of our global commercial footprint position Moderna to play an important role in providing healthcare security against Covid-19 and future vaccine-preventable diseases.”
Moderna has signed commercial agreements with distributors to supply its Covid-19 vaccine in 45 countries.
It has contracted Zuellig Pharma in the Asia Pacific, Medison Pharma for Central Eastern Europe and Israel, and Adium Pharma in Latin America.
In addition, the company has established bilateral and supranational supply agreements in 15 countries across Latin America.
In a separate development, Moderna has commenced the Phase 3 clinical study of its Respiratory Syncytial Virus (RSV) vaccine candidate, mRNA-1345, in the older population.
The Phase 3 part of the study, dubbed ConquerRSV, is aimed at establishing the safety and efficacy of the mRNA-1345 vaccine in adults aged 60 years and above.
Moderna intends to enrol around 34,000 participants in the Phase 3 trial.
The Data and Safety Monitoring Board (DSMB) for the RSV programme has recommended the Phase 3 trial, based on an independent review of Phase 2 data.
mRNA-1345 is a vaccine candidate that targets RSV encoding for a prefusion F glycoprotein to elicit a superior neutralising antibody response.
Moderna has leveraged the same lipid nanoparticle (LNP) technology as its Covid-19 vaccine, which comprises optimised protein and codon sequences.