Moderna to open messenger RNA vaccine factory in Australia

The Moderna laboratory announced on Monday the opening of a messenger RNA vaccine factory in Melbourne, Australia, a first in the southern hemisphere. The project will be based at one of the country’s leading universities, Monash, and will produce 100 million doses of vaccine per year, against Covid-19, influenza and other diseases.

Moderna’s Spikevax against the coronavirus was among the first vaccines to use the new technology called messenger RNA developed during the Covid pandemic. These vaccines, which can be developed quickly, use a molecule to teach the body to identify and fight a pathogen, such as Covid-19, unlike traditional vaccines, which contain a small piece of bacteria or virus.

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Construction of the Moderna plant is due to begin this year and be completed in 2024. For Australia, this project is not just about health and science, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said on Monday, “but also national securityafter the severe vaccine shortages experienced by the country during the pandemic.

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Melbourne, which will host the factory, has experienced one of the world’s longest lockdowns to contain the virus. A lesson to be learned from the pandemic, assured Anthony Albanese, is that “we need to make more stuff here. We can’t keep thinking it’s okay to be at the end of global supply chains“.

“In this part of the world, in the fastest growing region in human history, we also have the opportunity to project this capability into the Indo-Pacific.“, did he declare. Australia has seen a spike in Covid-19 cases in recent months after restrictions were eased. The virus has become the third leading cause of death in the country in 2022.

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