Shanghai, Moderna partner to advance biopharmaceutical innovation

The Shanghai Municipal Commission of Economy and Informatization, along with the Minhang District Government, signed a strategic cooperation agreement with Moderna Inc from the United States in Shanghai on Wednesday.

Shanghai Party Secretary Chen Jining met with Stéphane Bancel, CEO of Moderna. Gong Zheng, the deputy secretary of the Shanghai Municipal Party Committee and mayor of Shanghai, witnessed the signing of the agreement.

Chen introduced the latest development of Shanghai's biopharmaceutical industry, which is one of the city's three major strategic industries. After many years of effort, the industry has formed a relatively complete industrial chain and has become an important gathering place for global pharmaceutical companies.

Shanghai has always benchmarked the highest international standards and best practices, adapted to the changing research and development and innovation models in the biopharmaceutical field, strengthened institutional supply, improved service systems, accelerated the building of a world-class biopharmaceutical industry cluster, and effectively enhanced the industry's core competitiveness.

We hope that this strategic cooperation agreement will accelerate the landing of Moderna's projects, facilitate their early physical operation, promote more advanced technology, and innovative products to land in Shanghai. We will continue to create an internationally first-class business environment, provide efficient and convenient services for enterprises to invest in R&D and improve their business layout in Shanghai, and help enterprises achieve better and faster development, Chen said.

Bancel introduced the progress of relevant projects and R&D and production business in Shanghai since he visited Shanghai in April this year. He said that the signing of this important agreement consolidated the efforts of all parties and would provide strong support for the company's R&D, production, and other core businesses in Shanghai.

He fully appreciates China's and Shanghai's determination and actions in promoting the development of the biopharmaceutical industry, has full confidence in the industry's future development, and will accelerate the landing of Moderna's projects in Shanghai. He will work with Chinese partners to accelerate innovation and R&D and better serve the development of the biopharmaceutical industry and benefit patients.

Moderna Inc is a technologically advanced innovative pharmaceutical company, and the mRNA vaccines it has developed have played an important role in combating infectious diseases. This tripartite signing of the strategic cooperation agreement will focus on technological innovation and industrial development, accelerate the transformation of scientific and technological achievements, and help Shanghai build a world-class biopharmaceutical industry cluster.