Ginkgo Bioworks Provides Support on Process Optimization to Moderna for COVID-19 Response

Deal is part of Ginkgo's $25 million commitment to make its biological discovery and production services available to firms working on diagnostics, treatments, and vaccines in response to COVID-19

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Ginkgo Bioworks

Apr 15, 2020, 09:00 ET

BOSTON, April 15, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Ginkgo Bioworks, the organism company, today announced it is contributing its platform infrastructure and expertise to a project with Moderna, Inc. (Nasdaq: MRNA). The collaboration is focused on quickly exploring potential optimizations to Moderna's processes for generating some of the key raw materials used in the manufacturing of its mRNA vaccines, including for mRNA-1273, Moderna's vaccine candidate against COVID-19. Through leveraging Ginkgo's bioengineering know-how and resources, Moderna aims to accelerate its plans to improve the efficiency of this upstream raw material manufacturing process.

Ginkgo has invested $400 million during the last five years to build a 100,000-square-foot facility for automated bioengineering that is used today to support partners like Roche and Bayer with a broad range of infrastructure for biotechnology research and development. And Ginkgo is committed to applying its technology to aid the fight against the current pandemic.

Ginkgo is contributing its microbial discovery, production, and fermentation infrastructure to companies and academic researchers working on coronavirus response. The company intends to provide $25 million in free work at its Boston-area location to support the effort.

"We appreciate Ginkgo's offer to make its resources available to Moderna as we work on our vaccine candidate against the novel coronavirus," said Juan Andres, Chief Technical Operations and Quality Officer of Moderna. "We look forward to seeing how optimization of our internal processes may be able to increase the output of a key raw material used in our manufacturing."

"COVID-19 is an unprecedented challenge, but we have been so moved and inspired by the scientific community coming together to combat it — and Moderna is one of the leading companies working on a vaccine against COVID-19," said Jason Kelly, CEO and co-founder of Ginkgo Bioworks. "We've built our platform to enable partners across a wide range of applications to rapidly scale their R&D efforts, and we are committed to bringing our platform, resources, and scale to the fight against this virus. There is nothing more critical right now than doing what we can to accelerate potential vaccines to COVID-19."

About Ginkgo Bioworks

Headquartered in Boston, Ginkgo Bioworks uses the most advanced technology on the planet—biology—to grow better products. The company's cell programming platform is enabling the growth of biotechnology across diverse markets, from food to fragrance to pharmaceuticals. For more information, visit www.ginkgobioworks.com.

CONTACT: Kelsey Donohue, [email protected]

SOURCE Ginkgo Bioworks