Moderna, Inc., a biotechnology company pioneering messenger RNA (mRNA) therapeutics and vaccines, announced plans to expand its commercial network across six additional countries in Europe. Moderna plans to establish a commercial presence in Belgium, Denmark, Norway, the Netherlands, Poland, and Sweden to support the delivery of mRNA vaccines and therapeutics locally. This follows the recent announcement of plans for four new subsidiaries in Malaysia, Taiwan, Singapore, and Hong Kong.
“Europe has played a critical role in Moderna’s ability to manufacture and deliver our COVID-19 vaccine across the world, protecting millions of people from COVID-19 infection, hospitalization, and death. After a decade of pioneering the development of our mRNA platform, I am proud of the growth we continue to achieve,” said Stéphane Bancel, Chief Executive Officer of Moderna. “I look forward to furthering our collaborations with European researchers and partners to leverage our mRNA technology and expand treatment options to improve the lives of patients across Europe.”
Europe represents an integral part of Moderna’s business, with established commercial subsidiaries in Italy, France, Germany, Spain, Switzerland, and the United Kingdom. Established in 2021, Moderna Poland hosts the Moderna International Business Services (MIBS) Center, which provides critical functions, including finance, pharmacovigilance, human resources, and digital services. Moderna Poland will also expand to provide commercial capabilities.
The expansion comes as the Company continues to scale up the manufacturing and distribution of its COVID-19 vaccine while advancing other mRNA vaccine candidates and therapeutics. Moderna has several key manufacturing partnerships across Europe, including Lonza in Switzerland and the Netherlands, ROVI in Spain, and Recipharm in France.
Moderna’s broader pipeline currently includes 40 development programs, of which 25 are in clinical trials. The Company continues to update its COVID-19 strategy to address variants of concern such as Omicron and pioneer new vaccines and therapeutics for a range of diseases and conditions. Moderna is developing mRNA medicines to potentially prevent and treat diseases with significant unmet needs across infectious diseases, immuno-oncology, rare and ultra-rare diseases, and autoimmune diseases.
The Company currently has operations in 12 countries worldwide and has announced plans to establish a commercial presence in another ten countries across Asia-Pacific and Europe in 2022. Regulators have approved Moderna’s COVID-19 vaccine in more than 70 countries, including Canada, Japan, the European Union, the UK, and Israel. In 2021, 807 million doses of Moderna’s COVID-19 vaccine were shipped globally, with approximately 25% of those doses shipped to low- and middle-income countries.
In the European Union, the Company’s COVID-19 vaccine and booster are approved for use by the European Commission for active immunization to prevent COVID-19 caused by the SARS-CoV-2 virus in individuals 18 years of age and older. To date, the European Commission has ordered 460 million doses of Moderna’s COVID-19 vaccine, including boosters and the ability to purchase other COVID-19 vaccine candidates from Moderna’s pipeline. Purchase under this agreement is subject to regulatory approval of the booster vaccine candidates by the European Medicines Agency (EMA).