The Mexican Government has struck a long-term agreement with Moderna that will see the drugmaker help the country boost its vaccine offerings against respiratory diseases.
As per the five-year agreement, Moderna will supply its respiratory vaccine portfolio, and transfer its Covid-19 vaccine technology to Mexican pharma company Liomont. The latter part of the deal will allow privately-owned Liomont to produce mRNA-1273, Moderna’s vaccine approved for preventing Covid-19. The move starkly contrasts recent activities in the US – the FDA shunned a new mRNA influenza candidate from Moderna on 10 February.
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Liomont, which employs more than 1,500 people, operates some of the most modern pharma facilities in Mexico. In 2019, it opened a new plant in Estado de Mexico tasked with producing vaccines, amongst other modalities. According to Liomont, it became the first plant in Latin America with a liquid and vial filling line that incorporated isolator technology. The total plant size is over 1.6 million m2.
The alliance is part of the government’s “Plan Mexico,” an economic growth initiative to increase investment and build local production capacity. Moderna and the Mexican Government will also work together on the country’s health priorities, and level up pandemic preparedness in the region.
“We are proud to support Mexico in its mission to strengthen national health security,” said Stéphane Bancel, Moderna’s CEO.
“Through this agreement, we will be able to provide the Mexican people with access to our respiratory vaccines and critical pandemic response capacity. This collaboration also reflects the growing demand for these vaccines in Mexico, and we are excited about the opportunity to support public health needs while driving sales growth through geographic diversification,” Bancel added.
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By GlobalDataMexico had previously ordered up to 10 million doses of Moderna’s 2025-2026 Covid-19 vaccine, an updated version of mRNA-1273, also known as Spikevax.
Moderna is one of several big pharma companies to make investments in Mexico. In August 2025, Bayer announced plans to invest 3bn pesos ($174.13m) in the country over five years to modernise and expand production of its established sites in Mexico. Boehringer Ingelheim and AstraZeneca have also pledged millions of US dollars to upgrade their respective plants in Mexico. The latter believes Mexico could be a “global hub for innovation and technology.”
The unveiling of the Mexico-centred partnership by Moderna was overshadowed by a separate development in its mRNA portfolio. On 10 February, the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) refused to review Moderna’s new mRNA flu vaccine, representing a significant disconnect between the US regulator and the pharma industry on the modality.
The FDA decision sent Moderna’s stock sliding 10.5% from $41.99 at market close on 10 February to $37.60 when the markets opened on 11 February. Moderna has a market cap of $14.7bn.
The US mRNA sector remains volatile. Technology using mRNA has firmly been in the regulatory crosshairs of health secretary Robert F Kennedy Jr (RFK Jr), who has continually voiced his criticism of mRNA-based Covid-19 vaccines, questioning both their efficacy and safety. This culminated in a $500m federal funding cut to mRNA vaccine research funding.
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