The American pharmaceutical giant Moderna confirmed on Friday that it has chosen most of Montreal as a location for its new biotechnology plant – the company’s first outside the United States.
The $ 180 million facility is expected to produce 100 million doses of mRNA vaccines annually.
“It’s important to have production in Canada,” said Prime Minister Justin Trudeau of McGill University, who stood next to Moderna CEO Stefan Bansel and Quebec Prime Minister Francois Lego.
“We are strengthening our own ability to react to viruses.”
Details of its exact location are still pending. Minister of Innovation, Science and Industry Francois-Philippe Champagne, who was also present, said the company was still in the process of shopping for potential sites.
Construction of the plant will begin sometime this year and is expected to be completed by 2024.
Lego said the plant would better prepare the province for future pandemics by strengthening internal supply chains and vaccine autonomy.
“We had a difficult two years,” he said. “We had to look for masks, medical gowns and then vaccines. We learned that we were better served on our own.”
The Canadian organic production industry has shrunk, Lego has acknowledged, but what remains is concentrated in Quebec and the Greater Toronto area, both of which are in competition for the plant.
“Today I am pleased to announce that Quebec has won the battle for the Moderna facility.”
The facility will also include a research center that will collaborate with McGill University researchers who have signed a partnership with the company and will have the capacity to produce mRNA vaccines against other respiratory viruses, including seasonal flu. Funding for this study is expected to come from Moderna.
“For the first time in the history of medicine, we have a molecule that is an information molecule that changes everything. It’s like moving from Blockbuster to Netflix – it’s a paradigm shift,” Bansel said.
The company has signed a 10-year partnership with the federal government to operate the facility, he said.
WATCH Justin Trudeau announces a new Moderna plant in Quebec:
Justin Trudeau announces a new Moderna plant in Quebec
The first plant of the American pharmaceutical giant Moderna outside the United States will be located in the Montreal area. 1:09
“The Government of Canada was one of our first global partners in the early days of COVID,” added Bansel. “When I raised money in 2020, we didn’t have the financial strength to run this industrial machine, and Canada was one of the few countries here that helped.
Details of the agreement between Moderna and the governments of Quebec and Canada have not been released. It is not yet clear how much public money will go to fund the $ 180 million facility.
Moderna signed a memorandum of understanding with the federal government last August to bring such a factory to Canada. A press release from the federal government on Friday said the parties were still working out the details of the deal.
Moderna is a leading inequality in vaccines, critics say
The Council of Canadians Advocacy Group condemned the partnership, saying it would only deepen global inequalities in vaccines.
“We are spreading the red carpet for a company that has been the architect of the massive uneven distribution of vaccine doses around the world. So uneven that the World Health Organization called it apartheid for vaccines, “said Nicholas Barry Shaw, a trader and privatization fighter with the council.
Champagne told reporters on Friday that the government hopes Canada will maintain preferential treatment for vaccines produced at the facility.
“If Moderna will produce vaccines in Canada, Canadians will be first in line.”
Until vaccines against COVID-19 become widely available in low-income countries, the virus and new variants will continue to spread, Barry Shaw said.
“We believe we need to spend public money to build public production capacity and share technology,” he said, adding that World Trade Organization countries were calling on giants such as Moderna and Pfizer to lift patents for vaccines.
WATCH Moderna’s chief executive says a local presence could mean smoother future vaccines:
A Moderna spokesman says the Canadian plant will put the country in a better position for future pandemics.
Moderna’s general manager in Canada, Patricia Gauthier, says having a manufacturing plant here would prevent delays in the release of vaccines in the event of a new pandemic. 6:03
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