When Moderna and the UK government signed a ten-year strategic partnership in 2022, it marked a rare kind of agreement in life sciences. The deal promises long-term access to cutting-edge mRNA technology, on-shored manufacturing capacity, and fresh investment in research and skills. It is designed to make the UK better prepared for future pandemics while strengthening its life sciences sector as an engine of economic growth.
For the UK, the partnership offers something unusually durable in industrial policy: a decade of guaranteed inward investment. With it comes the potential to run faster clinical trials, closer links between universities and biotech, and the ability to produce up to 250 million vaccine doses per year in the event of a pandemic.
The agreement is structured around three streams — pandemic preparedness, vaccine supply, and research and development — each with its own boards and working groups, overseen by a joint Moderna-government committee that brings the strands together under ministerial scrutiny. In an era when resilience and growth are political priorities, the partnership stands out as both a public health and an economic bet.
Darius Hughes, Moderna’s general manager for the UK and Ireland, sees the length of the commitment as particularly impactful. “Because we now have a ten-year framework, we can think much more long-term,” he says. “We don’t have to work on one-year cycles. We can start projects that may take three or five years to bear fruit, knowing the benefits will be there for patients, for government, and for industry.”
The roots of such a collaborative relationship can be traced directly back to Covid-19. The pandemic forced industry, government, regulators and the NHS to work together at speed and with unprecedented transparency. “I’m not sure this kind of agreement would have been signed pre-pandemic,” Hughes reflects. “Covid showed that when everyone has the same mission, you can work together in a way that’s win-win-win: for patients, for government, and for the life sciences sector.”
“Mission” is a theme Hughes returns to time and again. Instead of adversarial negotiations over price or procurement, partnerships could be framed around shared goals such as resilience, innovation and growth. “It doesn’t need to be confrontational,” he adds. “When you have a shared vision and focus on impact, you can achieve things so much faster.”
The UK appealed to Moderna through its unique combination of science, regulation and political will. “When you looked at the UK’s response to the pandemic, it was impressive,” Hughes says. “The integrated healthcare system, the data, the ambition, the regulator, the scientists – you put that all together, it made a lot of sense to invest here long term.”
The Moderna executive points to the Oxford–Cambridge corridor and thriving life sciences hubs in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland, which together create what he calls a “whole-UK ecosystem” for biotech.
At the heart of the deal is mRNA technology, still relatively new but already hugely impactful. During the pandemic, Moderna used it to encode the Covid-19 spike protein, training the immune system to recognise and neutralise the virus. Hughes emphasises this is just the beginning, revealing that Moderna has more than 30 programmes currently in development.
Research is exploring mRNA applications for infectious diseases caused by respiratory viruses. In oncology, mRNA-based approaches are being investigated to help the immune system recognise tumour targets, and in some rare conditions researchers are assessing whether mRNA could enable cells to produce proteins they lack. While the platform can be adapted to encode different sequences once a target is identified, any potential use requires robust clinical evaluation and regulatory authorisation.
The benefits, however, are not confined to science or public health. Moderna’s presence in the UK is also an economic play. “Life sciences are a critical part of the UK’s growth strategy,” Hughes says. “Every investment in R&D, manufacturing, and skills is also an investment in jobs and in Britain’s global position.” That alignment with government priorities is no coincidence. “We deliberately align our planning with government priorities on growth and health,” Hughes continues. “It means industry and government are travelling together with a shared vision.”
The Moderna Innovation and Technology Centre (MITC) in Harwell, Oxfordshire, is the clearest sign of that investment. In just three years it has gone from hypothetical concept to a licensed facility employing an expected 120 people by the end of this year, producing vaccines for the British public and housing new laboratories. Furthermore, Hughes stresses, it provides an important visual manifestation of the scale and scope of this partnership.
In research, Moderna has sponsored 24 trials since 2021, and last year accounted for one-in-four participants in commercial clinical trials in the UK. It has also created the mRNA Access Program, enabling researchers to benefit from Moderna’s platform to accelerate the development of vaccines and therapies to tackle emerging and neglected diseases, as well as investing in PhDs and fellowships to build academic capacity.
That is the here and now, but how should the partnership be judged when it comes to the end of its current cycle? Hughes sets out three measures. First, resilience: the UK’s ability to produce up to 250 million doses per year in the event of a pandemic. Second, ecosystem impact: turning Britain into a global hub for mRNA science, with leading clinical trials and research collaborations. Third, patient outcomes: new vaccines and treatments delivered through the NHS. “Ultimately, we’ll be judged on what difference we’ve made to people’s lives,” he says. “It’s not just about wins for government or Moderna — it’s about wins for the public.”
The politics will inevitably shift. Ministers and officials change regularly, and a general election will come before the first decade is up. But Hughes is sanguine. “You do have to reintroduce yourself as faces change and people move,” he concedes. “That’s part of the process. But the framework, the reporting, the metrics — those provide stability.”
What matters, Hughes argues, is proving that this model works. “We don’t intend to just be here for ten years and then walk away. We want to be the partner of choice for mRNA in the UK, by building an R&D ecosystem, being a pandemic partner, and bringing innovative medicines to the British public. If we can deliver value for government, for industry, and most of all for patients, then this will have been a true success.”
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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