A roundup of news from Moderna and Sun Pharma and Highlights below.  

* Moderna Sets Location for New mRNA Facility and Technology Center 
* Sun Pharma Completes 386-M Acquisition of Concert Pharma 

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Moderna Sets Location for New mRNA Facility and Technology Center 
Moderna has announced that Harwell Campus in Oxfordshire, UK will be the location for its new Moderna Innovation and Technology Center. Last December (December 2022), the company finalized a strategic partnership with the UK government to establish a mRNA research, development, and manufacturing facility in the UK.  

Construction will begin in 2023, and the facility is expected to become operational in 2025. Once operational, the center is intended to provide access to a domestically manufactured portfolio of future mRNA vaccines against respiratory viruses, pending regulatory assessment and licensure. In addition, the facility is intended to provide the UK with direct access to pandemic-response capabilities, to reduce the impact of future pandemics. As part of the 10-year partnership, Moderna will also support the UK’s mRNA health and science ecosystem. 

Source: Moderna 

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Sun Pharma Completes $386-M Acquisition of Concert Pharma 
Sun Pharmaceutical, a Mumbai, India-based bio/pharmaceutical company, has completed its acquisition of Concert Pharmaceuticals, a Lexington, Massachusetts-based late-stage clinical bio/pharmaceutical company, in a $576-million deal ($386 million upfront plus contingent value right (CVR) payments).  

Concert is a late-stage bio/pharmaceutical company focused on the use of deuterium in medicinal chemistry. Its lead product is deuruxolitinib in Phase III development to treat alopecia areata, an autoimmune dermatological disease that causes hair loss. With the closing of the acquisition, Sun Pharma plans to follow Concert’s plan to submit a new drug application for the drug to the US Food and Drug Administration in the first half of 2023.   

Sun Pharma acquired all outstanding shares of Concert’s common stock for $8.00 per share in cash, plus one non-transferable contingent value right per share, worth contingent payments of up to $3.50 per share, in cash, upon the achievement of certain milestones prior to December 31, 2029. As a result of the transaction, Concert became a wholly owned subsidiary of Sun Pharma. 

Source: Sun Pharma