Trudeau to announce $200 million toward new vaccine plant in Mississauga

In total the new facility will cost $400 million to build

Author of the article:

Ryan Tumilty
Publishing date:May 18, 2021  • 

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau holds a press conference in Ottawa on Friday, May 7, 2021, during the COVID-19 pandemic. PHOTO BY SEAN KILPATRICK /The Canadian Press

OTTAWA – Prime Minister Justin Trudeau will announce a nearly $200 million investment Tuesday in a facility designed to manufacture mRNA vaccines in Mississauga.

The money from the federal government’s Strategic Innovation Fund will go to Resilience Biotechnologies Inc, a government source confirmed to the National Post. In total the new facility will cost $400 million to build.

mRNA vaccines are a relatively new technology and are the underlying science behind vaccines from Moderna and Pfizer, which have shown to be highly effective against COVID-19. Canada had very little domestic vaccine manufacturing at the start of the pandemic and because the technology is novel, mRNA vaccines in particular are made in only a small handful of facilities around the world.

The new facility is expected to have the capacity to make between 112 million and 640 million doses of mRNA vaccines every year. The company is a contract manufacturer, making drugs for other companies, and the facility will be able to make several types of vaccines and therapies.