Moderna, an US drugmaker has signed a deal to make mRNA medicines in China as part of its first major investment in the country, despite escalating trade and political tension between Washington and Beijing.
As reported by Reuters, “Any medicines produced under this agreement will be exclusively for the Chinese people….and will not be exported,” said a spokesperson from Moderna. According to the company, “With this announcement, we are taking further steps to deliver on our mission of creating the greatest possible impact to people through mRNA medicines.”
The city government of China’s financial hub Shanghai confirmed the signing of strategic cooperation agreements with Moderna, after authorities including Shanghai’s communist party secretary Chen Jining met with the company’s CEO Stephane Bancel.
“We hope to speed up the implementation of Moderna’s projects … and promote more advanced technologies and innovative products to land in Shanghai,” Chen said in the statement.
Chinese media outlet Yicai has earlier reported that Moderna was set to make its first investment in China that could be worth around $1 billion. Moderna said in May it was looking for opportunities in China after registering a legal entity in the world’s second-largest economy. The company prior to this had no presence in mainland China. It opened an office in Hong Kong last year as part of an Asia expansion.
Moderna is trying to capitalize on the success of its Covid vaccine, which uses a platform called mRNA to teach human cells to produce an immune response against a virus. Moderna has several contracts to export or locally manufacture Covid jabs for countries such as Japan, Canada, Australia and Kenya.
Moderna has said that it was keen to sell its mRNA vaccine to China but the company and its foreign peers have so far been kept out as Beijing has insisted on using only Chinese-made COVID-19 vaccines for its population.
