Biotech firm Moderna Inc., which is currently testing a coronavirus vaccine candidate, received a grant from the federal government to build a mobile factory that can pump out its medicines, Fox Business reports.
The Cambridge, Massachusetts-based company announced Thursday that it received a grant from the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) of up to $56 million "to fund the development of a mobile manufacturing prototype."
The goal of creating a mobile unit, which has been compared to an espresso machine because of its size, is to speed up production of vaccines and therapeutics to combat coronavirus.
The grant is part of DARPA’s Nucleic Acids On Demand World-Wide (NOW) initiative. Moderna will use the money to build a 6-foot by 6-foot by 6-foot container that can produce "hundreds of doses" in just a few short days. Fox Business reports the containers could be sent anywhere in the world, which would make distribution of vaccines and medicines more seamless.
“We look forward to building on our experience rapidly designing and manufacturing vaccines as demonstrated with mRNA-1273, our COVID-19 vaccine currently in a Phase 3 study,” Moderna CEO Stéphane Bancel said in a statement. “This new award will allow us to explore the reach of our technology to potentially enable fast, in-field, automated manufacturing of vaccines and therapeutics for both military personnel and civilians around the world in a container that can be deployed rapidly."
© 2026 Newsmax. All rights reserved.