Moderna Inc. has pledged a multimillion-dollar investment to the Ontario government in order to speed up and improve Ontarians’ access to life-saving vaccines and expand vaccine manufacturing. Through the Ontario Together Fund, the government of Ontario is contributing $4 million to the project.
Premier Doug Ford stated, “Moderna’s new investment is a huge vote of confidence in our province, our workers, and our growing life sciences sector.” This investment will not only result in the creation of well-paying jobs, but it will also provide our healthcare workers and the general public with more dependable access to vaccines that can save their lives, ensuring that we will no longer have to rely on other jurisdictions to keep us safe.
The final steps of preparing and packaging respiratory mRNA vaccines for distribution in Ontario and throughout Canada will be completed by Moderna and Novocol Pharma, who are collaborating to add new manufacturing capabilities to their Cambridge facility. The partnership will help the province become more self-sufficient in the event of future health emergencies and will result in the creation of highly skilled jobs for Cambridge workers and the surrounding area.
Minister of Economic Development, Job Creation, and Trade Vic Fedeli stated, “Through the Ontario Together Fund, we continue to grow our life sciences sector and help Ontario businesses innovate and bring their ideas to market.” As they work to make Ontario the home of the next generation of medical technology solutions, our government is pleased to collaborate with organizations like Moderna and Novocol Pharma. We will be able to ensure that we have a strong medical supply chain now and in the future if we increase our capacity for biomanufacturing.
Sylvia Jones, Deputy Premier and Minister of Health, stated, “By building homegrown capacity to produce vaccines that save lives, Ontario will no longer need to rely on other countries to keep our communities safe.” The Cambridge community will benefit from the well-paying jobs that this partnership between Moderna and Novocol Pharma will create, as well as from strengthening our domestic production of vaccines to ensure quicker access in the event of a future public health challenge.
Companies from all over the world continue to come to Ontario to invest and create jobs. Life sciences companies and global biomanufacturers have invested more than $3 billion in Ontario over the past two and a half years.
