Ottawa and Quebec formalized Friday morning the construction in Montreal of the Moderna plant, the only one outside the United States, a victory for Quebec, launched, triumphantly, Prime Minister François Legault.
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American pharmaceuticals were also courted by Ontario, but the offer from Quebec seemed more appealing.
“I am pleased to say that Quebec has won the battle for the Moderna plant,” declared François Legault, extolling at length the importance of this plant for the Quebec economy.
The latter also underlined the contribution of the Minister of the Economy, Pierre Fitzgibbon, who had taken this file under his wing in recent months. “He spent time on Moderna, it’s a lot thanks to him. […] We insisted a lot, I must say a big bravo to you for having succeeded in this blow, ”he launched to his minister.
Details of the deal have yet to be released, but Fitzgibbon said they will be made public soon. “There is a financial framework that has been established by the teams from Investissement Québec and the ministry, and Moderna is in the process of finalizing the plan,” he explained.
- Listen to Philippe-Vincent Foisy and Antoine Robitaille at the microphone of Benoît Dutrizac, on QUB radio:
Officially, the investment is valued at 180 million dollars, but in the coming months this figure will be much higher, a government source told us. It was impossible to know the contributions of Ottawa and Quebec.
The two prime ministers were accompanied by several ministers and representatives of the pharmaceutical company, among them the CEO of Moderna, Stéphane Bancel.
“As a French-speaker and admirer of Canada and Quebec, it is always a great pleasure for me to visit this truly magical place, and even more today, for this historic news,” said this French d ‘origin.
Moderna will establish a “center of excellence” and a factory where it will produce 30 million doses of RNA vaccine initially, then up to 100 million doses per year once the project has reached maturity. The CEO spoke of a 10-year “strategic agreement”.
Construction of the plant is expected to be completed in 2024 and some 200 to 300 people are expected to work there. Its location has still not been disclosed.
Mr. Bancel also affirmed that a special agreement had recently been signed with McGill University. This agreement will allow researchers to collaborate with the company in the development of new vaccines.
“Moderna will invest heavily in research and development and do clinical trials right here at home. It is therefore the entire ecosystem that will benefit from this investment,” underlined the Federal Minister for Innovation, François-Philippe Champagne.
The current pandemic has highlighted Canada’s vulnerability during events like a pandemic. The federal government therefore wanted to have more control over vaccine production and be less dependent on other countries.
“Whether against COVID-19 or other diseases, vaccines save lives. It is important to have facilities and a production capacity at the cutting edge of technology, ”said Mr. Trudeau, who also praised the involvement of Minister Champagne.
“We call him the ‘Energizer Bunny’, he is everywhere calling and attracting investment,” said the Prime Minister.
In August 2021, Moderna had confirmed its intention to settle in Canada. From then on, the Toronto region and the Montreal region went out of their way to attract pharmaceuticals.
But Montreal, which has a large network of researchers and universities very active in the life sciences, took the prize.
Today’s announcement was also special, as it was the first meeting between Prime Minister Legault and his counterpart Justin Trudeau since the last election campaign.
During this, Mr. Legault had given his support to the Conservative troops of Erin O’Toole, which had thrown a cold between him and Mr. Trudeau.
The two men still do not agree on a number of issues, including health transfers and the immigration system.