Construction of the Moderna Innovation and Technology Centre (MITC) was completed earlier this year. The drug products it manufactures will provide the UK public with direct access to Moderna’s infectious disease vaccines and the latest advancements in vaccine technology.
mRNA technology has been highlighted as an enabler of the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations (CEPI) 100 Days Mission, a global goal to compress vaccine development timelines. The MITC should support the UK government’s pandemic preparedness by allowing vaccine doses to be produced locally, aiming for rapid response to potential new health threats requiring urgent vaccination.
Situating a high-tech manufacturing facility in the UK not only expands Moderna’s manufacturing footprint, but also adds to the infrastructure required for the country to pursue that desired level of preparedness.
Thanks to qualified scientific staff, digital solutions and the use of AI, the MITC is becoming a world reference in LNP-mRNA research. The research facilities benefit from the latest equipment in liquid chromatography mass spectrometry, ligand binding, immunogenicity and molecular assay.
The company selected the Harwell Science and Innovation Campus in Oxfordshire as its base due to the site offering a unique combination of expertise in the development of vaccines and nucleic acid technologies, with Moderna entering a vibrant ecosystem of research institutes and organisations.
The MITC, along with Moderna’s headquarters in Norwood, USA, and identical sites in Australia and Canada, will form a network of advanced manufacturing hubs that collectively strengthen global pandemic readiness. Each site is strategically placed to maximise geographic coverage and minimise response times, ensuring that vaccines and therapeutics can be distributed quickly and efficiently. This proactive approach is crucial in a world where new pathogens can emerge unexpectedly and spread rapidly.
The centre consists of two facilities: the drug substance manufacturing facility and the clinical research and development (R&D) facility. The former is the manufacturing hub of the MITC. It will produce mRNA vaccines for infectious diseases, support NHS vaccination programmes, and help protect people who are most at risk. It is also intended as a multi-product facility, with the potential to manufacture multiple products at the same time. If a new pathogen or variant of concern is identified, production could be switched to manufacture vaccines for that specific pathogen – subject to clinical testing and licensure.
Through its clinical R&D facility, Moderna is uniquely positioned in the UK to become a biopharmaceutical hub of excellence. It houses clinical biomarker, bioanalytical and molecular assay laboratories.
The clinical laboratories, as they are collectively known, analyse samples from Moderna’s clinical trials from across the globe to rapidly evaluate clinical data on the effectiveness of potential therapeutics and vaccines.
Samples are collected from participants enrolled in Moderna’s global clinical trials and transported under stringent, validated conditions to ensure integrity and traceability. These include biological materials, such as blood, faeces, urine and saliva, which are shipped to the clinical laboratories for analysis.
The clinical laboratories will also be a training hub, offering skills development through internships and graduate programmes in clinical research and clinical assay techniques. The MITC will host apprentices, undergraduate students, PhD and Moderna fellows to foster innovative research around vaccines, global health, mRNA science and other disease areas, such as cancer. Finally, the clinical R&D facility is a base for UK’s Clinical Development team, building links with Moderna’s global programme of developing new vaccines and therapeutics, and facilitating implementation within the UK of the clinical trials required to study these.
The laboratories contain cutting-edge technologies and capabilities including Moderna’s Biobank, which houses the UK’s first Hamilton BiOS, a fully automated, high-capacity system capable of storing up to 1.5 million clinical samples at -80°C with precise tracking and retrieval.
An automated cryogenic storage system from Azenta Life Sciences holds 250,000 samples in vapour-phase liquid nitrogen, ensuring long-term preservation of ultra-sensitive materials. Additional -80°C freezers provide flexible storage capacity for diverse clinical needs. These advanced systems ensure sample integrity, chain of custody, and throughput, enabling robust data generation – from early-stage biomarker discovery to large-scale registrational trials – while supporting precision medicine and global public health efforts.
By combining cutting-edge manufacturing with advanced clinical research and skills development, the MITC positions the UK at the forefront of mRNA science. Its dual focus on rapid-response production and global data analysis creates a foundation not just for today’s health challenges, but for the unpredictable threats of tomorrow, all while cultivating the next generation of scientific talent.
This article first appeared in The UK’s mRNA opportunity: Growth, resilience, leadership, a New Statesman report, funded by Moderna.
Date of preparation: October 2025
Material number: UK-MRNA-2500106
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