Too early for Moderna to build factory in PH, says company exec

MANILA  -American pharmaceutical company Moderna Inc. on Wednesday said it’s too early to put up a vaccine manufacturing facility in the Philippines, dampening hopes that the Massachusetts-based firm known for its COVID-19 vaccine would establish a local plant in the next few years.

Moderna senior vice president and general manager Patrick Bergstedt said this when asked whether the company’s plan to set up a shared enterprise solution hub in the Philippines this year was a prelude to the establishment of a vaccine plant.

“I think it’s a little bit premature to talk beyond that at this point in time. I think we also want to be realistic, to say that we need to crawl before we sprint, right? And we are still in the crawling phase,” Bergstedt told reporters during a media roundtable discussion.

Still, the Moderna executive said they had gone through a “robust” process to select the Philippines to host its third enterprise hub in the Asia-Pacific, citing plans to have a long-term presence here.

The US-based company is looking to establish this hub to provide enterprise solutions in the Philippines, similar to its counterparts in Warsaw, Poland, and Atlanta in the United States, which were established in May 2021 and March 2022, respectively.

Moderna has said that the region was integral to its business given that it has established subsidiaries in Australia, Hong Kong, Japan, Singapore, South Korea and Taiwan.

This hub will initially house finance, pharmacovigilance, medical and human resources personnel, in addition to commercial-focused roles, to support its direct presence in the market. INQ

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