Pharmaceutical company Moderna has announced the opening of an array-based DNA vaccine manufacturing plant in Melbourne, Australia, an unprecedented development in the southern hemisphere.

It will be based at one of the country’s leading universities, Monas, and will produce 100 million doses of vaccines against COVID-19, influenza and other diseases annually.

Moderna’s Spikevax, against the new coronavirus and the infection it causes, was one of the first to use so-called messenger DNA technology and was developed during the pandemic.

Vaccines of this type, which can be developed quickly, use a molecule that allows the body to identify and fight pathogens such as SARS-CoV-2, unlike more traditional vaccines that contain a very small proportion of a bacterium or virus. virus.

Construction of the Moderna plant will begin this year and is expected to be completed in 2024.

For Australia, this is not only a matter of public health and science, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said today, but also a matter of “national security” following the severe vaccine shortages the country faced during the health crisis.

Melbourne, where the plant will be located, has experienced one of the longest lockdowns globally to prevent the spread of the virus.

Mr Albanesi also stressed that one of the lessons of the pandemic that needs to be learned is that “we need to build more things here. We cannot continue to believe that dependence on global supply chains is okay,” he explained.

“In this part of the world, the region experiencing the fastest growth in human history, we also have the opportunity to project this ability to the Indo-Pacific region,” he added.

Australia has seen a spike in viral infections in recent months following the easing of restrictions. The infection it causes became the third leading cause of death in the country in 2022. To date, the official death toll from COVID-19 has surpassed 12,860 out of a total of nearly 9.8 million cases of SARS-CoV-2 infection.