Moderna says the Tokyo-headquartered company’s synthetic biology and enzyme technologies will support its expanding portfolio of therapeutics and vaccines, as well as bolstering its suite of platform technologies.
It marks the first-ever acquisition for Moderna: which brought its first commercial product to market in 2020 with its COVID-19 vaccine and now has an extensive pipeline of 45 development candidates, with 35 in active clinical trials.
"With this acquisition, we obtain best-in-class tools for cell-free synthesis and amplification of plasmid DNA, a key building block in mRNA manufacturing," said Stéphane Bancel, Chief Executive Officer of Moderna.
"OriCiro's technology strategically complements our manufacturing expertise and further accelerates our research and development engine. We look forward to welcoming the OriCiro team to Moderna."
OriCiro was founded in December 2018, focusing on the development and commercialization of cell-free synthesis and amplification of plasmid DNAs for applications in gene/cell-based therapies and synthetic biology.
Its technologies are ‘positioned to unlock and expedite the possibilities of advanced therapeutics and synthetic biology by providing a powerful tool to be used for the research, development and manufacturing of plasmid DNA’.
