Today, Canada will sign an agreement with U.S. drug maker Moderna, to build an mRNA production plant on Canadian soil. This will be the second major deal the federal government in Canada has organized in the last three months to start producing mRNA vaccines. The federal Innovation Minister Francois-Phillipe Champagne will meet with Moderna CEO Stephane Bancel in Montreal to sign the memorandum of understanding.
Back in May, Champagne said the government would supply $199 million to Resilience Technologies in Mississauga, Ontario. Roughly half of the cost will go to expanding the existing plant to generate up to 640 million doses of vaccines every year. Moderna and Ottawa are still negotiating specifics, such as money allocations, and where or when to build the new plant.
Champagne explained that Canada attracted many life sciences companies last spring after it promised to contribute $2.2 billion for biotechnology research and commercial production over 7 years. Moderna was created in 2010 to research and produce messenger RNA, or mRNA, and therapeutics.
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