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Australia will produce millions of mRNA vaccines a year from 2024 in a deal secured by the federal government with Moderna and the Victorian government to build a local manufacturing facility in the state.

The in-principle agreement to create the country’s first mRNA manufacturing facility will also allow priority access to non-pandemic vaccines including potential influenza shots, which Prime Minister Scott Morrison said would be critical for protecting Australians.

Australia will produce millions of doses of mRNA vaccines a year in a deal struck with Moderna to manufacture the vaccines onshore.Credit:Alex Ellinghausen

“The new mRNA manufacturing facility in Victoria will produce respiratory vaccines for potential future pandemics and seasonal health issues such as the common flu, protecting lives and livelihoods,” he said.

Health Minister Greg Hunt said the facility would be key to the country’s medical manufacturing future and help meet the country’s COVID-19 vaccine needs.

Under the Moderna deal, the facility will produce 25 million doses a year from 2024, with the capacity to ramp up production to 100 million doses for future pandemics. The Victorian government expects the deal will create up to 500 jobs during construction and about 500 ongoing roles.

Acting Premier James Merlino said having local capability would help avoid global supply chain issues and provide a stronger defence against future pandemics.

“This is a huge announcement not just for Victoria, but the whole country – being able to manufacture mRNA vaccines and treatments locally will lock in vaccine security both on our shores and across our region,” he said.

The Moderna deal is yet to be finalised and a location for the manufacturing facility, which would produce the vaccine and complete the fill-and-finish part of production on the one site, has not been confirmed. The federal government could not reveal how much the partnership would cost due to commercial contract negotiations.

As part of the deal, Moderna has also agreed to run clinical trials in Australia, committed to ongoing research and development onshore and will base its Asia-Pacific head office in Melbourne.

The Commonwealth is also investing up to $25 million from 2022 to 2023 for mRNA clinical trial grants to support local research and innovation.

Mr Morrison said Commonwealth investments in the Medical Research Future Fund, the modern manufacturing initiative and tax incentives around research and development had helped put Victoria on the medical research map.

“Melbourne is now rightly known as a global leader in medical research and so it was the natural location for the new mRNA facility with an established workforce with the right skills and investment,” he said.

Moderna Australia and New Zealand general manager Michael Azrak said the company was proud to be at the forefront of mRNA vaccine development.

“We look forward to finalising agreements and starting work to develop onshore respiratory mRNA vaccine manufacturing capability here in Australia,” he said.

The Commonwealth had been in talks with Moderna for months. The deal also ends the federal government’s earlier call for separate proposals to build mRNA manufacturing centres locally.

The Victorian deal is a blow to the NSW government, which had recently been wooing Moderna with offers of tens of millions of dollars to set up a manufacturing facility in Sydney.

Both the Victorian and NSW state governments committed millions in funding for such facilities earlier this year, with Victoria putting $50 million on the table and NSW committing $96 million.

Once Australia’s facility is built, it will be the largest producer of mRNA vaccines in the region.

There are currently no mRNA manufacturing facilities in the Asia-Pacific region. Singapore announced a deal in May to manufacture millions of doses of the Pfizer and BioNTech vaccine but their facility is yet to be completed.

Labor’s industry spokesman, Ed Husic, has previously criticised the federal government for being slow on mRNA vaccine manufacturing.

“Three different ministers in charge of mRNA development in this country and they’ve achieved little other than forking out $6 million in fees to consultants,” he said in October.

“For the health of the nation and our economy, we need Scott Morrison to get his act together on manufacturing mRNA vaccines like he said he would.”

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