US Vaccine Manufacturer Moderna Makes Its First Investment in China

Healthcare Author: Yuan Zhuang Aug 09, 2023 03:17 PM (GMT+8)

American vaccine manufacturer Moderna announced a major decision.

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Recently, American vaccine manufacturer Moderna’s registered subsidiary in China, Moderna Biotech UK Limited (美德纳生物科技), held an investment signing ceremony with Minhang District People's Government (闵行区政府) in Shanghai, officially announcing that it settles in Shanghai and will set up its Chinese headquarters here. The total investment amounted to USD 1 billion dollars.

Moderna was founded in 2010, and its mRNA technology has shown great value in the fight against COVID-19. Together with BioNTech in Germany, it was the first to launch an mRNA COVID-19 vaccine in the global market. At the end of 2020, the FDA urgently approved Moderna's mRNA vaccine, which also became the company's first FDA-approved product. On January 6, 2021, the European Commission officially listed it as the second new crown vaccine approved by the European Union.

With its innovative mRNA new crown vaccine, Moderna achieved a breakthrough in commercialization in 2021, triggering explosive growth in performance. According to the latest financial report, the company achieved revenue of USD 18.47 billion in 2021, a year-on-year increase of 2200.25%. In terms of net profit, it reached USD 12.2 billion dollars, a surge of 1733.47% year-on-year.

Moderna and other vaccine makers are actively exploring new growth strategies as demand for COVID-19 vaccines wanes significantly. In China, leading companies such as China-Biotics (中国生物), Sinovac (中国科兴), Fosun Pharma (复星医药), and Hualan Biological Engineering (华兰生物) are actively planning for the future. On the international stage, Pfizer and Novavax in the United States, BioNTech in Germany, AstraZeneca in the United Kingdom, and other companies have all shown strong competitiveness and are fully prepared for the next stage of the global vaccine market.

Moderna's investment scale has reached a new peak in the recent foreign investment projects in Shanghai and has received high attention from relevant Shanghai government departments. In April this year, when senior leaders of Shanghai met with Moderna CEO Bancel, they made it clear that Moderna, as an innovative pharmaceutical company at the forefront of technology, is highly compatible with Shanghai's biomedical industry development strategy. It is also one of the three leading industries that Shanghai focuses on building. And the fields of cooperation between the two parties are very broad.