• Moderna Inc (NASDAQ: MRNA) will be adding two new production lines at the rebuilt former Polaroid plant where it manufactures its COVID-19 vaccine to prepare for making booster shots.
• The company is getting one new line up and running by fall and the other by early 2022.
• The additions will help Moderna increase its overall production capacity by 50% at its plant in the Boston suburb of Norwood.
• Moderna and its manufacturing partners are also expanding production capacity outside the U.S., aiming to roughly triple the annual global output of COVID-19 vaccine doses to about 3 billion in 2022 from as many as 1 billion this year.
• Company officials said the latest expansion would help Moderna boost its overall supply of COVID-19 vaccine doses to the U.S. and other countries.
• Citing FactSet, Wall Street Journal posted that Moderna’s COVID-19 vaccine sales will top $17.1 billion this year, dip slightly to $16.8 billion in 2022 and come in at $7.4 billion in 2023.
• The company currently makes between 40 million to 50 million doses a month in the U.S., most of which is made at the Norwood plant, but some are made at a contractor’s plant in New Hampshire, WSJ noted.
• Moderna has been on a hiring spree. Last year, the company added nearly 500 employees, boosting its workforce to 1,300.
• The company said earlier this week it had agreed to provide the U.S. an additional 200 million doses starting later this year, over an above 300 million Moderna expects it will have delivered for U.S. use by the end of July.
• Price Action: MRNA shares are up 4.86% at $208.87 during the market trading session on the last check Monday.