Merck Life Science has released a paper on trends in vaccine manufacturing in the Asia Pacific Region. The paper includes research from interviews with nearly forty industry executives, plus interviews from research institutes in ten different countries. The COVID pandemic highlighted the potential of mRNA vaccines, with 87% of respondents looking to focus on mRNA vaccines as a critical modality in the future. Furthermore, survey respondents cited process development and technology transfer expertise as key needs when adopting new technology. Merck Life Science considers that it will be some time before mRNA becomes the dominant modality, given the need for production processes and the regulatory landscape to evolve in the meantime. The company expects that most vaccine producers will want to have capabilities relating to multiple vaccine modalities, as they invest to expand facilities and incorporate bioprocessing 4.0.
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