- The U.S. government will provide up to $75 million to expand U.K.-listed Croda International Plc's (OTC:COIHF) U.S. manufacturing capacity of ingredients for lipid systems used in novel therapeutic drugs, such as mRNA vaccines.
- Croda will also invest up to $58 million.
- The investment will be used to establish a new lipid facility in Lamar, Pennsylvania. Construction is expected to start later this year, with the new capacity anticipated in 2025.
- The investment supports the expansion of Croda's portfolio, by creating a third manufacturing site for lipid systems, alongside Croda's existing Alabaster, Alabama, U.S. (Avanti) and Leek, U.K. capabilities.
- The cooperative agreement is a joint award from the Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority (BARDA), and an arm of the U.S. Department of defense will join forces for preparedness for future health emergencies.
- Financial Times writes that Pfizer Inc (NYSE:PFE) / BioNTech SE (NASDAQ:BNTX) and Moderna Inc's (NASDAQ:MRNA) COVID-19 vaccines were the first approved jabs to be made with mRNA technology.
- The vaccines rely on bubbles of fat known as lipid nanoparticles to deliver genetic codes that teach the immune system to recognize the virus.
- Lipid systems offer significant potential as the delivery system for many nucleic acid applications, including novel mRNA-based therapeutics, such as flu vaccines and cancer treatments.
- Given the current clinical development pipeline's scale, the lipid systems market is expected to grow significantly over the next ten years.
- Image by Spencer Davis from Pixabay
