Resilience to manufacture mRNA for Moderna in Canada
The multi-year agreement will see the Californian-headquartered company, founded in 2020 and described as a company seeking to build the ‘world’s most advanced biopharmaceutical manufacturing ecosystem’, produce mRNA in Canada for distribution worldwide.
“Moderna’s COVID-19 vaccine has saved countless lives, and we’re excited to manufacture mRNA for this important vaccine,” said Rahul Singhvi, Sc.D, Chief Executive Officer of Resilience.
“This collaboration has the potential to ensure more people are protected around the world from the deadly COVID-19 virus.”
Resilience was formed by Robert Nelsen in November: promising a new business model after seeing COVID-19 expose shortfalls in supply chains and manufacturing. It has pledged to invest in developing new manufacturing technologies across multiple therapeutic modalities, including vaccines, cell and gene therapies, viral vectors and proteins.
At inception, it had already raised over $800m of capital and secured 750,000 square feet of operating space.
It has acquired a 310,000 square foot plant in Boston, MA, from Sanofi; and, separately, a 136,000 square foot plant in Mississauga, Ontario. In May, the Government of Canada announced it would invest $199.2m CAD ($163.8m USD) in the company's Ontario-based subsidiary Resilience Biotechnologies Inc: with the aim of increasing capacity for vaccines and therapeutics.
In April, Resilience acquired Florida's Ology Bio, which came with more than 200,000 square feet of manufacturing and office space in Florida, California and Maryland.
Separately, Moderna last month announced a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the government of Canada to bring a mRNA vaccine manufacturing facility to the country.
