US drugmaker Moderna Therapeutics Inc (NASDAQ:MRNA) is closing in on a deal with the UK government to open a vaccine research and manufacturing centre.
The company, which makes the mRNA Coronavirus (COVID-19) jab, was originally in talks to buy an existing research and manufacturing hub in Oxford but has veered away from the idea.
The investment would further consolidate the success of the UK in producing vaccines in recent years, most notably AstraZeneca and Oxford University’s COVID-19 jab, the Telegraph reported.
"The UK is ideally placed to become a life sciences superpower, and collaboration with world-leading companies is crucial to this,” Sajid Javid, the UK Health Secretary, wrote on Twitter.
Moderna, which sold 510mln doses of its COVID-19 vaccine in the final nine months of last year, has been long searching for overseas investments with plans in Africa, Canada, and Australia revealed in 2021.
“Moderna is planning to be a significant player in the respiratory vaccine market for years to come, and is in the process of securing in-house manufacturing locations around the globe,” Karen Andersen, an analyst from Morningstar Inc., said.
MRNA vaccines use technology that tricks the body into making coronavirus proteins so the immune system can learn how to respond to the virus, the Telegraph said.
Other COVID-19 jabs, such as AstraZeneca's, work by using a different, non-harmful virus, to teach the immune system how to respond to Covid-19, it added.