The UK government is working with Boston-based Moderna to build the country’s first messenger RNA vaccine manufacturing center on a £ 1bn deal as it seeks to be a leader in the response to pandemics.
The government aims to ensure the local supply of mRNA technology that has been shown to be a crucial weapon in the fight against Covid-19 and offers the possibility of transforming treatment for other conditions such as cancer.
Once built, the center, which could be located from the “golden triangle” between London, Oxford and Cambridge in the south of England to a place in the northeast, will manufacture up to 250 million annual doses, including some for export. . The 10-year agreement, which will take effect this summer, also includes working together on research and development.
Health Secretary Sajid Javid said the government had designed Modern with a long-term supply of vaccines, as well as the UK’s strong life sciences ecosystem.
“This is huge in scale and capacity,” he told the Financial Times. “I think what this shows is that in post-Brexit Britain, when it comes to domestic investment, and especially in this case, the life sciences, the UK is the leader in Europe.”
Javid had sought and secured a “personal mandate” from Boris Johnson, the UK’s prime minister, to negotiate the deal, he added. He visited Moderna earlier this year.
In 2020, the government was heavily committed to the vaccine developed by AstraZeneca in collaboration with Oxford University, which never achieved the levels of effectiveness of mRNA strokes.
Johnson said investing in Moderna would “guarantee a blow to the arms” and create jobs, as Boston-based biotechnology is developing vaccines for other respiratory diseases, such as the flu and the respiratory syncytial virus.
“We’ve all seen what vaccines can do, and today’s association brings us one step closer to finding cures for some of the most devastating diseases,” he said.
The agreement in principle includes the creation of the national manufacture of mRNA vaccines, which can be adapted quickly to address outbreaks of new pathogens.
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The Covid-19 pandemic highlighted the importance of local vaccine supply, as governments, including the US and India, restricted their exports.
The UK said it had invested £ 395 million to secure and increase the country’s drug manufacturing capacity since the start of the pandemic. But it has also sold part of its flagship vaccine manufacturing center.
Javid made it clear that the government saw investment as a critical part of its post-Brexit life sciences strategy. According to the agreement, Moderna will conduct a large part of its clinical trials in the United Kingdom.
Ministers see the records of crib patients in the grave generated by the tax-funded NHS, which cares for the British throughout their lives, as a major incentive for companies to invest in the country.
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Stéphane Bancel, CEO of Moderna, said people were worried after Brexit that the UK would suffer less investment in science.
But he said Moderna was helping to address these concerns by providing mRNA technology, which could also be used by other scientists to create something “super magic.”
“The piece that we found very exciting is the incredible amount of scientific leadership that the UK has had for a long time… This is not something that the UK has lost at all,” he said.
He added that with 46 possible drug or vaccine programs in its portfolio, Moderna could not do all of its clinical trials in the US. “The scale that the UK has to offer in terms of clinical trial capacity is quite unique,” he said.
Moderna will also build a facility to allow university researchers access to its mRNA platform.
Javid said one of the lessons of the pandemic was to make sure the country was more resilient. “There will be future pandemics,” he said. “None of us know exactly what, when and how.”