On Monday BioNTech issued a statement saying it plans on setting up a regional headquarters in Singapore where it will also build its new manufacturing site for vaccines based on messenger RNA technology (mRNA). The development sees the company expanding its production network.

BioNTech’s Singapore production facility will have an estimated annual capacity of several hundred million doses of mRNA-based vaccines depending on the specific type; the new plant will become operational in 2023.

The company went on to add, its expansion plans were supported by the Singapore Economic Development Board and it would result in an increase in the global supply of mRNA-based vaccines.

“Having multiple nodes in our production network is an important strategic step in building out our global footprint and capabilities,” said Ugur Sahin, CEO and Co-founder of BioNTech.

Governments across the globe are looking to ramp up local vaccine production to secure access to supplies following manufacturing setbacks which have slowed the rollout of COVID-19 vaccines in some countries.

BioNTech will open its new office in Singapore later this year 2021 and expects manufacturing to start by 2023 and as a result create up to 80 jobs in Singapore.

The move to establish a regional hub in southeast Asia comes in the wake of Mainz, Germany-based BioNTech, setting up a U.S. headquarters in Cambridge, Massachusetts in 2020.

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