Moderna's top medical officer said the U.S.-based biopharmaceutical company will continue to use its worldwide manufacturing facilities, despite President Joe Biden’s new $2 billion initiative to support for biomanufacturing in the U.S.

Earlier this month, Biden signed an executive order to launch a National Biotechnology and Biomanufacturing Initiative, prompting speculations that U.S. biotech companies may move drug production through contract manufacturing organizations (CMOs) in other countries back to the U.S.

The initiative aims to raise more government spending into the U.S. biotechnology sector and build stronger supply chains.

"Access is critical, and I think though our strategy will be to continue what we're doing, which is to use contract manufacturing organizations around the world," Moderna Chief Medical Officer Paul Burton said during an APAC regional media roundtable meeting on Wednesday.

"Samsung Biologics is a great example, and we will sign more CMO deals if needed by continuing to survey the landscape."

Burton stressed that the amazing thing about the vaccine platform is that a company can manufacture the vaccines, store them, and disperse them when needed.

"For example, for Cytomegalovirus vaccines, we can produce large quantities of vaccine as there is no evidence that the virus can mutate, bank it, and ship it to countries that require the vaccine,” Burton said. “However, such a manufacturing model will be hard to apply with influenza and other pandemic viruses, which clearly do mutate.”

He said it was why the company has to continue working with CMOs to meet supply and demand, and to be able to adapt even on the fly if a variant of a pandemic virus appears.

"I don't think we'll be straying much from our current manufacturing strategy," Burton added.

‘Extra shots of bivalent vaccine crucial to fight persistent emergence of variants’

Burton also stressed that people who have previously received booster shots should receive an additional updated vaccine.

The Korean government plans to start inoculating high-risk groups from Oct. 11 with Moderna’s bivalent vaccine, designed to defend against the Omicron variants.

Those aged 60 and over, with weakened immunity, and patients in long-term care hospitals and facilities are given priority in receiving the vaccine. Health authorities estimated that about 13 million people will be included in the priority group.

However, many recipients in the high-risk group who have already been receiving booster shots are questioning the need to receive an additional dose of Moderna's bivalent vaccine.

"The current ancestral vaccine, which is the conventional vaccine, is effective as it does produce high antibody levels,” Burton said. "However, they are clearly directed against the original strain of SARS-CoV-2, and the virus has changed so much since the initial stage."

That is why the company developed a newly updated vaccine that targets new variants, Burton added.

Burton cited two key reasons to receive Moderna's bivalent vaccine – the upcoming winter season where people tend to live close together indoors with less fresh air that can increase infection risks and the continued and quick emergence of newly evolving variants.

He strongly recommended that high-risk people get boosted with the updated vaccine as soon as their country or regional recommendations roll out.