Moderna has chosen Montreal as the location for its Canadian mRNA vaccine-manufacturing plant, Global News has learned.
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and Quebec Premier François Legault will be in Montreal on Friday for an official announcement.
A source close to the premier confirmed this information to Global News on Wednesday.
Moderna CEO Stéphane Bancel was in Montreal in August 2021 when he announced a memorandum of understanding had been reached with the federal government for the drug maker to build a manufacturing plant in Canada within the next two years, with vaccines being pumped out by 2024.
That would allow for the facility to be built and then inspected and approved by Health Canada before starting production.
The facility is expected to produce mRNA vaccines for a variety of diseases with a capacity of 30 million doses of vaccine per year.
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Under the agreement unveiled in August, Canada would not only get priority access to the doses, it would also have the ability to dictate what exactly the factory makes, allowing it the flexibility to respond to new or emerging threats.
“The Government of Canada has the right at its own discretion to call the facility to make a product that it wants,” Bancel said at the announcement.
The location of the new plant has yet to be publicly announced.
— with files from Global News’ Leslie Young and the Canadian Press’ Mia Robinson
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