Pharmaceutical giant Moderna has chosen a larger area in Montreal to build its new biomanufacturing plant. The announcement will be made on Friday in the presence of Justin Trudeau and François Legault.
Facilities include a research center and a messenger RNA (mRNA) vaccine production facility. According to the agreement concluded in the summer, production capacity will increase to 30 million doses per year and the company should employ 200 to 300 people initially.
Negotiations are still ongoing regarding the exact location of the facilities, but Radio-Canada has confirmed that they will be located in a larger part of Montreal.
According to the agreement announced in August, construction should be completed in 2024. It will be the first Moderna plant outside the United States. A Liberal source told Radio-Canada that it was a big win for Quebec.
To mark the occasion, the Prime Ministers of Canada and Quebec will be accompanied by a line-up of ministers. Jean-Yves Duclos and his counterpart from Health in Quebec, Christian Dubé, will participate in the announcement. The federal Minister of Innovation, François-Philippe Champagne, and the Quebec Minister of the Economy, Pierre Fitzgibbon, were also present.
Last August, the federal government agreed with an American pharmaceutical company to build a plant in Canada. Moderna’s CEO, Stéphane Bancel, did not want to move forward in the area where he intended to ground the new installation. Although Montreal was approached, other cities in Quebec and Ontario, such as Quebec, Sherbrooke, Laval and Toronto, showed interest.
Mr. Bancel then said he did not want to rush his decision, citing the fact that it had to be done diligently: You have to understand that these are decisions not for six months, one or two years, but for 20, 30, 40 years. It’s really important that we do this in a place where we have the right level of talent, because they’re going to be Moderna employees.
Since the pandemic began, the Trudeau government has promised to bring back Canada’s biomanufacturing sector. So far, Ottawa has invested $ 1.6 billion in about 30 projects related to biomanufacturing, vaccines and treatments.
Source: Radio-Canada
