MANILA — Pharmaceutical and biotechnology firm Moderna said on Thursday it is working quickly to build and open its service center facility in the Philippines by the third quarter of 2023.

In an interview with ANC, Moderna Senior Vice President Patrick Bergstedt said Moderna's Philippine service center is 1 of only 3 of its kind globally, next to the ones in Georgia and Poland.

"We are moving at speed and we hope to have this facility operational in the third quarter by September," Bergstedt said.

Moderna's shared service facility will be for financial services, human resource services, regulatory and IT, he said. It will also be for "pharmacovigilance" or the "the monitoring of the safety and tolerability of vaccines," he said.

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When asked what made Moderna choose the Philippines instead of other countries in the region, Bergstedt said it was because of the quality of talents and the established IT-BPM space.

"It’s really the quality of the people and that your shared service business is really an established business," he said.

Moderna said it would hire about 40 to 50 employees before the end of the year, which would eventually continue to expand in phases.

Moderna is known for its COVID-19 vaccine, but Bergstedt said its portfolio includes other vaccines for respiratory and other diseases.

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