The Moderna mRNA 100m doses a year vaccine plant at Monash U is confirmed

The Victorian Government and the Commonwealth were “finalising all arrangements” with the company yesterday, for a ten-year partnership.

The plant will reduce Australian dependence on imported vaccines against present and future pandemics.

“I can’t think of a better place than Monash University…  to be the centre of mRNA technology, research, product development  and possibility,” Vic premier, Daniel Andrews said.

The agreement finalises a deal dating from December but there was no word yesterday on partner financing.

Dan Andrews on the sort of research that really matters

At the mRNA launch yesterday Mr Andrews spoke on the work of universities, which is, “not just pure knowledge not just about understanding, not just about the accumulation of wisdom as important as that it is but about the translation of that knowledge into products and services, into jobs, into opportunities, into prosperity, from the laboratory to the factory, from the bench to the bedside.”

The discovery research message has a way to go.