Recipharm Signs Agreement With Arcturus Therapeutics to Support the Manufacture of LUNAR-COV19 (ARCT-021) Vaccine Candidate


Recipharm has recently entered into an agreement with Arcturus Therapeutics, a leading US-based clinical-stage messenger RNA medicines company focused on the development of infectious disease vaccines and significant opportunities within liver and respiratory rare diseases. Arcturus has secured manufacturing slots with Recipharm to support the manufacture of ARCT-021, Arcturus’ COVID-19 vaccine candidate that is in an ongoing Phase 1/2 clinical trial.

Commenting on the partnership, Thomas Eldered, CEO of Recipharm, said “We’re delighted to be able to support Arcturus Therapeutics on such an important project. Our experience in managing the complexity of biologic projects means that we are ideally placed to support from early phase discovery all the way through to successful commercialization. We’re looking forward to working together and using our development and manufacturing expertise to continue to progress the project.”

The companies are working together to secure commercial manufacturing production for 2021 and the future.

Pad Chivukula, PhD, CSO, and COO of Arcturus Therapeutics, added “We’re looking forward to working closely with Recipharm in order to advance our objectives toward distribution of ARCT-021 broadly and playing an important role in global immunization to protect against COVID-19.”

Recipharm is a leading Contract Development and Manufacturing Organisation (CDMO) in the pharmaceutical industry employing almost 9,000 employees. Recipharm offers manufacturing services of pharmaceuticals in various dosage forms, production of clinical trial material and APIs, and pharmaceutical product development. Recipharm manufactures several hundred different products to customers ranging from big pharma to smaller research and development companies. Recipharm’s turnover is approximately SEK 11 billion. The company operates development and manufacturing facilities in France, Germany, India, Israel, Italy, Portugal, Spain, Sweden, the UK and the US and is headquartered in Stockholm, Sweden. The Recipharm B-share (RECI B) is listed on Nasdaq Stockholm. For more information on Recipharm and our services, please visit www.recipharm.com.

Founded in 2013 and based in San Diego, CA, Arcturus Therapeutics Holdings Inc. (Nasdaq: ARCT) is a clinical-stage mRNA medicines and vaccines company with enabling technologies: (i) LUNAR lipid-mediated delivery, (ii) STARR mRNA Technology, and (iii) mRNA drug substance along with drug product manufacturing expertise. Arcturus’ diverse pipeline of RNA therapeutic and vaccine candidates includes self-replicating mRNA vaccine programs for SARS-CoV-2 (COVID-19) and Influenza, and other programs to potentially treat Ornithine Transcarbamylase (OTC) Deficiency, Cystic Fibrosis, Cardiovascular Disease along with partnered programs including Glycogen Storage Disease Type 3, Hepatitis B Virus, and non-alcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH). Arcturus’ versatile RNA therapeutics platforms can be applied toward multiple types of nucleic acid medicines including messenger RNA, small interfering RNA, replicon RNA, antisense RNA, microRNA, DNA, and gene editing therapeutics. Arcturus’ technologies are covered by its extensive patent portfolio (192 patents and patent applications, issued in the U.S., Europe, Japan, China and other countries). Arcturus’ commitment to the development of novel RNA therapeutics has led to collaborations with Janssen Pharmaceuticals, Inc., part of the Janssen Pharmaceutical Companies of Johnson & Johnson, Ultragenyx Pharmaceutical, Inc., Takeda Pharmaceutical Company Limited, CureVac AG, Synthetic Genomics Inc., Duke-NUS, and the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation. For more information, visit www.ArcturusRx.com.