Moderna is on a steady march to market with its mRNA-based COVID-19 vaccine, and the company is snapping up manufacturing capacity along the way. After inking one fill-finish deal with major CDMO Catalent last month, Moderna has now put its name to a second pact. 

Moderna signed a deal with Spain's Laboratorios Farmacéuticos Rovi for fill-finish duties on "hundreds of millions" of the Massachusetts-based vaccine maker's mRNA COVID-19 shot candidate, the partners said Thursday. 

Rovi will tackle the finishing work for Moderna's vaccine at its Madrid facility after purchasing a new production line and equipment for compounding, filling, automatic visual inspection and labeling, according to a joint release. 

Rovi expects to start the work in early 2021 and will hire additional staff to take on the increased manufacturing load. The partners did not disclose financial terms for the deal. 

RELATED: Moderna aims for light-speed COVID-19 shot rollout with Catalent fill-finish deal

Moderna's newest fill-finish pact with Rovi comes as the biotech looks to secure large-scale manufacturing for its shot, which it hopes to take into phase 3 human testing this month. 

In late June, Catalent teamed with Moderna to handle fill-finish duties for up to 100 million doses of Moderna's shot at the CDMO's Bloomington, Indiana facility.

Catalent pledged to put its team into 24-7 production mode to start churning out Moderna's vaccine as soon as the third quarter, filling vaccine vials and packaging them up for distribution in the U.S. The partners are also in talks for capacity beyond the initial 100 million-dose order. 

RELATED: Moderna taps $1.34B stock offering to bankroll its promising COVID-19 vaccine

Back in May, Moderna offered up $1.34 billion in stock as part of a cash-raise effort to finance its expansive manufacturing and distribution plans to reach 1 billion doses per year of its mRNA candidate.

That same day, Moderna offered an early peek into results from a phase 1 test in eight individuals, jacking up its stock price by 20%. 

Also part of Moderna's aggressive expansion plans is a deal with Lonza, inked in early May, to flesh out manufacturing suites at two of the CMO's facilities to boost production.