U.S. drug maker Moderna will sign an agreement with
the Canadian government today promising to build an mRNA
production plant in Canada.
Moderna CEO Stephane Bancel will sign the memorandum of understanding
ith federal Innovation Minister Franรงois-Philippe Champagne
in Montreal this morning !
Ottawa attracted the attention of a number of life sciences companies last spring,
when it promised $2.2 billion for biotechnology research
and commercial production over the next seven years
About half of that is a fund directly targeting companies
that want to expand or set up production lines in Canada.
The mRNA vaccines are among the newest of vaccine technology.
They use RNA, a single-stranded molecule that typically carries specific codes
about various human genes and instruct the body to make certain types of cells.
An mRNA vaccine takes the code for parts of the virus that causes COVID-19
and attaches it to RNA which, when injected,
carry a message to the human immune system
that teaches it to fight off the virus.