Yahoo Finance Pioneering vaccine maker Moderna to open first factory in Britain
Jab maker Moderna plans to open first vaccine factory in Britain, as it hailed the UK’s “world-class life sciences and research community” which came to the fore during the pandemic.
Moderna, whose Covid-19 mRNA jabs played a key role in vaccinating Britain last year, said it had struck a deal with the Government to establish a new vaccine innovation and technology centre in the UK.
The US biotech company is yet to lay out plans for how large the facility will be or where it will be built, although reports have suggested it was considering between Oxford, Cambridge and London.
It follows talks between Moderna chief executive Stéphane Bancel and Health Secretary Sajid Javid in Boston earlier this year.
Moderna, which is also setting up a factory in Canada, said it would use the facility in Britain to manufacture mRNA vaccines for Covid and flu. Its work would be in collaboration with the Government.
It added that the site would allow a rapid response to future pandemics, if vaccine makers once again had to quickly develop and produce new jabs to tackle viruses.
Experts have called for major investment in so-called pandemic preparedness to allow for scientists to develop and deploy vaccines within 100 days for the next pandemic. Moderna said the facility would help Britain meet that goal.
Under the deal, which is an agreement in principle and needs a final green light from both sides, Moderna will also be making more investments into research and development efforts in the UK. It is currently working with government agency the National Institute for Health Research on a Covid booster jab which could tackle Covid variant Omicron.
Stéphane Bancel, chief executive of Moderna, said the company was “excited to be able to continue our collaboration with the UK government and vaccine taskforce with this new mRNA Innovation and Technology Center in the UK.
“We are committed to global public health, and as we continue to expand internationally, we are pleased to bring local mRNA manufacturing to the UK.”
It comes as part of a major uptick in vaccine production capacity in Britain, which prior to the pandemic had largely relied on other countries for jab production.
More than £200m of taxpayer cash was poured into building a mega-vaccine site, the Vaccine Manufacturing and Innovation Centre, during the pandemic.
The facility had originally been envisioned as a smaller vaccine research and production site, which lots of companies could use to develop next-generation jabs, but the pandemic meant its scale was dramatically increased.
It is expected to be completed later this year, after its opening date was pushed back, and is set to be able to make 70m jabs in as little as four months. The facility was sold to US company Catalent in April.
