(This story was updated to include the advisers).
Moderna, the biotechnology company which recently signed a 10-year deal with the UK government to produce a homegrown supply of COVID jabs, has taken an 145,000-square-foot innovation and technology hub at Arc's Harwell, the science and research campus in Oxfordshire.
CoStar News revealed in February last year that Moderna, advised by the Department for International Trade, had begun lining up visits to sites in west London and the South East able to house a hybrid 100,000-square-feet-plus campus seen as central to the country's post-Brexit life science strategy.
Market sources told CoStar News Moderna was visiting sites in Reading, Oxford, Cambridge and west London, seeking a building that could provide a hybrid of clean laboratory, manufacturing and offices suitable for the production of vaccines.
The Brookfield-owned Arc life sciences business has now signed the US-headquartered group to develop the £150 million Moderna Innovation and Technology Centre at Harwell. It will comprise two buildings and create a research, development and manufacturing facility that can develop messenger RNA vaccines for respiratory diseases, pending regulatory assessment and licensing.
The MITC will also include a clinical biomarker laboratory that will be built by offsite construction specialist Merit. Merit will build the prefabricated modular laboratory entirely in Blyth Valley, Northumberland, which will then be installed at Harwell.
Construction will begin this year, with the facility expected to become operational in 2025, subject to planning and regulatory approvals.
The partners said the investment will create hundreds of jobs across Oxfordshire and the UK and will cement the Oxfordshire campus as a national health tech hub for the pioneering research and development of mRNA and other nucleic acid therapeutics.
It was announced in December that Moderna had signed a deal with the UK government to produce a UK-made supply of COVID-19 jabs for the next 10 years, as well as cutting-edge vaccines developed for other respiratory diseases, such as flu and respiratory syncytial virus.
Bidwells is advising Harwell Campus on its plans to develop 1.6 million square feet at the campus, including cutting-edge labs, offices, research and development, and advanced manufacturing space.
Darius Hughes, UK general manager at Moderna, said in a statement: “We look forward to joining the Harwell Campus health tech cluster and contributing to the UK’s science and innovation community through investments in R&D. When constructed, our facility at Harwell will harness mRNA science to develop and deliver tailored, innovative vaccines to the UK public that address particular threats from respiratory viruses facing our population.”
Stuart Grant, chief executive of Harwell Campus said: “mRNA technology has the capability to transform how we treat a variety of diseases and enhance UK resilience against future pandemics.”
Moderna’s MITC is the next development to start at Harwell and is in addition to the planned three million square feet of development already planned at the campus. The next phase of growth will see a combination of lab, office, and R&D buildings being built including the new 21,000-square-foot Zeta development. The masterplan development at Harwell is aimed at reducing the chronic shortage of lab space across Oxfordshire.
Bidwells’ head of Oxford, Richard Todd, and lead adviser to Arc, is project managing the planning and development of the MITC on behalf of the Brookfield-backed life sciences asset manager and investor.
Todd said: "Today’s announcement builds on the success of the UK’s vaccine rollout programme, which helped open up economies worldwide. Moderna’s 10-year partnership cements Harwell Campus’ as a global centre of excellence, where ground-breaking scientific discovery is achieved with each passing day."
Arc, the Brookfield-owned real estate partner for science and innovation development, launched the first of its accelerator and incubator spaces for early-stage science, technology and innovation businesses at its offices in Hammersmith in July, with plans for a rollout across its major UK-wide portfolio.
The platform was launched by Brookfield, the Toronto-based global alternative asset manager, earlier in 2022 with a specific focus on bringing organisations together in clusters to create ecosystems that stimulate innovation.
The launch followed Brookfield’s 2020 acquisition of a 50% stake in Harwell Science and Innovation Campus in Oxfordshire and the £714 million acquisition of the UK Arlington business parks platform in 2021.
JLL and Bidwells advised Arc.