Ottawa to help fund Moderna vaccine plant
DEAL COMES JUST DAYS BEFORE AN EXPECTED ELECTION CALL
The federal government will announce a deal Tuesday with vaccine maker Moderna to build a Canadian MRNA vaccine plant capable of producing millions of doses a year.
The deal is coming just days before a federal election is expected to be called and is light on details, but the drug giant is committed to building a plant somewhere in Canada that could supply the domestic market with vaccines.
Champagne will speak at a press conference Tuesday morning with Moderna’s CEO Stéphane Bancel, to announce the plant as well as a commitment to research and development.
Industry Minister François-philippe Champagne said getting a commitment from Moderna to build an important facility here cements Canada’s reputation as a good place to do business.
“It’s going to be good news for Canadians in terms of resilience, that’s good news for the whole science ecosystem in Canada, and it’s good news also for investment in jobs,” he said.
The government will be helping to cover the costs of the new plant, but it is unclear how much taxpayer cash will go toward the project. Champagne said Moderna is putting in hundreds of millions of its own money.
The Liberals have made restarting domestic vaccine production a priority since the pandemic began. Canada had little vaccine manufacturing capabilities when the pandemic began and shipments of both Pfizer and Moderna vaccines were slowed by export restrictions from the countries where they were manufactured.
In May, the government gave nearly $200 million to Resilience Biotechnologies, a contract drug manufacturer that plans to open an MRNA vaccine plant in Mississauga, Ont.
They also provided $415 million to drug giant Sanofi Pasteur for a new facility in Toronto and have also invested in facilities in Montreal, Saskatoon and Vancouver.
Champagne said having Moderna open up a plant capable of MRNA vaccine production is important in protecting the country from future pandemics, because it cements Canada’s capabilities across several technologies.
“We wanted to make sure that we would have capacity, domestic production capacity, with respect to all families of vaccines,” he said. “This was the piece that was missing in our puzzle, to make sure that we could be better prepared, whatever comes next.”
Moderna’s MRNA COVID vaccine is one of the leading vaccines internationally, along with Pfizer’s product, and has been rolled out to millions of people around the world.
The science of MRNA vaccines was relatively new when the pandemic began, but beyond COVID, Moderna has two dozen potential vaccines or treatments using the technology in development, including vaccines for influenza, cytomegalovirus, Zika, and HIV.
Champagne rejected the idea that the looming federal election played a role in the decision to announce the deal, before all the details were set.
He said the company is clearly committed to building in Canada and announcing the deal will only cement that.
“I am very confident that we will come to a detailed agreement,” he said. “Once you have agreement with the company you forward and announce because you just want to lock that in to increase resiliency.”
He said the deal makes Canada better off for the future, because Moderna is committed to not only set up a plant here, but to source the materials for a vaccine in Canada.
“We have commitment on the domestic supply chain, so that we are more resilient, so not only will they produce in Canada, but we have commitment that they will source as much of the ingredients and the fill and finish will be done in Canada.”
Moderna is under contract to supply 44 million doses of its COVID vaccine to Canada by the end of September and has delivered more than 18 million so far.