The American biotechnology company Moderna will build a research and production centre in the United Kingdom dedicated to messenger RNA vaccines, the British Government announced on Wednesday, stressing that it wanted to prepare “for future pandemics."
This contract, the financial terms of which have not been disclosed, aims to give patients of the British public health service access “to the next generation of vaccines and treatments," stated the Ministry of Health in a press release.
The site will have a centre for research and development of RNA vaccines, allowing a large part of the clinical trials to be carried out on British soil. It will also have a production facility for vaccines.
The government underlines the “pivotal” role of this technology in the fight against the pandemic, and its “potential to allow breakthroughs for certain types of diseases such as cancer, influenza, dementia or heart disease."
Construction should begin this year with the first vaccines produced in 2025.
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“The centre will be able to rapidly increase production in the event of a health emergency, strengthening the United Kingdom’s capacity to respond to future pandemics," the company stated.
The United Kingdom is one of the countries most affected by the Covid-19 pandemic with nearly 180,000 deaths. It has bought vaccines en masse in recent years, including RNA technologies from Pfizer and Moderna, while it mainly produced more classic AstraZeneca/Oxford serums.
“Our investment will secure vaccines against the most dangerous viruses, putting us at the forefront of battles against future threats,” Prime Minister Boris Johnson said in the statement.
