Spain's Rovi ROVI.MC has agreed a 10-year extension to its deal with Moderna MRNA.O to manufacture future drugs developed with the mRNA technology used for the U.S. company's coronavirus vaccine.
The deal includes new investment to expand capacity at Rovi's plants, the company said without disclosing the amount of investment.
The deeal keeps Rovi, which which manufactures and conditions drugs on behalf of other laboratories, as a crucial link in the development of the mRNA technology that was widely used for the first time in vaccines against COVID -19 and could be the basis for future treatments.
Rovi's partnership with Moderna to manufacture its COVID-19 vaccine has been a boon for the Spanish business, which doubled and tripled profit and revenue respectively in the first nine months of last year from the same period a year earlier.
(Reporting by Inti Landauro Editing by David Goodman)
