When it comes to mRNA vaccines and their protective effect against COVID, it is clear that the dose matters a lot. Moderna's COVID vaccine is tailored to allow the delivery of the highest dose of mRNA, which means it also gives the largest production of protective antibodies. This seems to be critical in the longer lasting protection of the vaccine, and Moderna's vaccine protection therefore seems to last longer. There is no doubt that onshore manufacturing of mRNA vaccines is a great step forward for Australia, and it is great news that Moderna is the selected candidate.

Moderna building a production facility here in Victoria is very exciting, not only for Australia's capacity to make its own COVID vaccines, but also for the innovative platform this will provide to treat many more diseases including cancer. Moderna seems to be willing to collaborate with local scientists and this is bound to drive novel technologies. From a practical point of view, on shore manufacturing of mRNA vaccines will allow the swiftest roll out of booster shots to upcoming new variants, through fast tracking of regulatory approvals.

The Australian Academy of Science welcomes the announcement of an Australian mRNA vaccine manufacturing capability. The agreement reached between the Victorian Government, the Commonwealth Government and Moderna will significantly grow our sovereign capability to respond to future pandemics, as well as respond to uniquely Australian problems.

The Academy first called for a sovereign RNA manufacturing capability in our pre-Federal budget submission in February 2021.

With today’s announcement the governments are taking a significant step towards creating an innovative RNA research and development ecosystem in Australia and becoming a global player in this disruptive industry, creating and manufacturing high-value RNA-based products domestically and exporting them to the world.

The Academy looks forward to future actions to ensure that the pipeline of knowledge and skills can adequately support these new facilities long into the future, such as developing a National RNA Science and Technology roadmap and developing the infrastructure and pilot manufacturing to support clinical trials and new applications of this science in areas of Australian strength and needs.

Developing capability to manufacture and use RNA in multiple areas is an opportunity that Australia must seize. We have many world-leading experts in RNA science and biomaterials located within our universities and research agencies.

The Academy is supportive of the establishment of a manufacturing capability with the ability to produce mRNA-based vaccines. The opportunity to take advantage of the potential to develop more advanced uses of RNA therapies and technologies in the future, including the treatment of disorders such as arthritis, cancer and malaria and producing environmentally friendly biopesticides, should be seized.

This is a big milestone for Australia. We will now have large scale manufacturing capability allowing us to be better equipped to deal with future pandemics. The best news about this is that Moderna will engage much more heavily with the research community here. This is a welcome addition to the already burgeoning RNA ecosystem across Australia which has strength across the whole RNA field, not just mRNA vaccines.

It will make a huge difference in developing other RNA technology that will transform our health outcomes over the next ten to twenty years. As Australia’s largest RNA Institute, we here at UNSW RNA Institute will be looking forward to having Moderna a lot closer to home.

It is very good to see that the Federal and Victorian governments have worked together to bring Moderna’s mRNA therapeutics production and research to Australia. This is important to provide on-shore population-scale production capacity of vaccines to deal with future infectious disease calamities.

Of even greater importance long-term, this will give Australia a real shot at becoming an international player in a fast growing pharmaceutical manufacturing market based on disruptive technology that has therapeutic applications well beyond vaccines. It is also encouraging to see that governments will flank this development with additional investment to promote a broader, national RNA research and development ecosystem, drawing on strong science in the Australian universities and medical research institutes as well as the local biotech industry.

Australia has done relatively well in terms of protecting the health of its citizens and supporting economic recovery. The hope is now that an innovative, diversified and export-oriented local RNA industry will emerge as another positive legacy of the COVID-19 pandemic for Australia.

This is excellent news for Australia to have secured manufacturing capacity of mRNA vaccines with Moderna. The mRNA technology has shown its value in COVID-19 protection and there is a healthy pipeline of potential for mRNA vaccines to protect against other infections.
 
The increased capability in manufacturing capacity should also be accompanied by an increase in clinical trial capability across Australia to take vaccines from early phase to licensure.

I really think that it is a brilliant idea to produce our own vaccine, not confined only to COVID-19 but also for future pandemics. Despite the market dominance of vaccine manufacturers based in high and middle-income countries, there are many reasons why a developing country or regional grouping of countries may want to establish their own vaccine supply. These include: supply security, control over production scheduling and sustainability, control of costs, socio-economic development, and rapid response to local epidemics including emerging infectious diseases. One good example is the ability of vaccine makers to supply vaccines to the country of origin much faster compared to shipments around the world and in any pandemic, time is really a crucial factor, with these countless lives will be saved faster.

Vaccine production involves a complex range of steps that require not only significant up-front investment in R&D, but also in selecting suppliers of key ingredients, setting up manufacturing processes and quality checks, and sourcing primary and secondary packaging. Each vaccine has specific active components (the antigen) that generate different immune responses. Some contain an inactivated form or component of the disease-causing organism; in the case of some of the novel COVID-19 vaccines, a blueprint enables the intercellular production of the antigen. The latter will determine the manufacturing process and the type of production facility that is needed.

With mRNA vaccines proving to be really superior in generating immune response (antibodies) which is evident now, this will be a really great way forward especially due to the relative ease of adaptability when it comes to the mRNA platform (shorter period of production if there is requirement for the vaccines to be tweaked/modified to be variant specific, just like for the current COVID-19 pandemic).