US-based pharmaceutical firm Moderna will open its shared service facility (SSF) and commercial office in Manila in September this year, its executive said Wednesday. In a virtual briefing with trade reporters, Moderna senior vice president and general manager Patrick Bergstedt said the firm is acting quickly to deliver its investment commitments to the Philippines since Moderna executives met President Ferdinand R. Marcos Jr. in the United States early this month. ‘We plan to have this facility up and running before the end of the third quarter, so by September of 2023. This will be a facility staffed by Filipinos,’ Bergstedt said. Bergstedt declined to disclose Moderna’s investment for its SSF and commercial office in Manila, but he mentioned that the first phase of its investment projects would initially hire 40 to 50 local talents. Moderna Enterprise Solution Hub in Poland head Lukasz Wielochowski noted that its Manila SSF will be Moderna’s third business solution hub, an addition to its Poland and Georgia facilities. Wielochowski said the Poland office covers the European and the Middle East markets, while the Georgia office deals with the Americas. ‘Selecting the Philippines as our location for APAC (Asia-Pacific) is really very important decision for Moderna. Our vision is really to build and scale our major operations for the hub structure, so we are efficient and effective, at the same time, agile and flexible,’ he added. Among the enterprise solution that will initially be provided by the Manila SSF include finance, pharmacovigilance, medical, procurement, information technology and digital, regulatory, and human resource. Moreover, Bergstedt said Moderna’s commercial office in Manila will work with the Philippine government in providing vaccines for Filipinos but not limited to Covid-19 jabs. Although the first phase of investments here offers back office services, and not yet on vaccine production, the Moderna executives said the pharma and biotech firm is not closing its doors for any opportunities that may arise in the country, be it manufacturing or research and development of new vaccines.
Source: Philippines News Agency
