Mod­er­na has been pro­tec­tive of the in­tel­lec­tu­al prop­er­ty sur­round­ing its vac­cine, in­clud­ing be­ing will­ing to go to court and ac­cus­ing oth­er com­pa­nies of patent in­fringe­ment. Now the most re­cent up­date puts a mag­ni­fy­ing glass on Mod­er­na’s deal­ings with Chi­na.

Per a re­port from the Fi­nan­cial Times over the week­end, Chi­na asked Mod­er­na to hand over the in­tel­lec­tu­al prop­er­ty be­hind its megablock­buster vac­cine known as Spike­vax. Cit­ing peo­ple “fa­mil­iar with the mat­ter,” the re­port notes that the mR­NA biotech was in ne­go­ti­a­tions with Chi­na in 2020 and 2021 to sell its prod­uct in the world’s most pop­u­lous coun­try.

But Mod­er­na backed out of those ne­go­ti­a­tions due to “safe­ty and com­mer­cial con­cerns,” per the re­port.

As the Times not­ed, Chi­na has of­fered on­ly two routes to al­low non-Chi­nese Covid-19 vac­cine mak­ers to dis­trib­ute in the coun­try: to hand over all the tech­nol­o­gy to a do­mes­tic drug­mak­er; or to break ground on a man­u­fac­tur­ing fa­cil­i­ty in the coun­try with a Chi­nese part­ner, yet re­tain con­trol of the tech­nol­o­gy.

How­ev­er, per the Times’ sources, Mod­er­na ex­ecs did not want to hand over the vac­cine “recipe” to a Chi­nese part­ner, be­cause if the com­pa­ny messed up on the man­u­fac­tur­ing, Mod­er­na feared dam­age to its rep­u­ta­tion.

Af­ter Chi­na’s re­port­ed de­mand, an­oth­er source added to the Times that the com­pa­ny had giv­en up on its ef­forts to en­ter the Chi­nese mar­ket.

Mod­er­na did not re­spond to a re­quest for com­ment from End­points News. How­ev­er, the com­pa­ny told the Times on record that “We are not cur­rent­ly en­gaged in sup­ply talks with Chi­na. We are open to speak­ing with coun­tries on their sup­ply needs for Covid-19 vac­cines.”

The mR­NA gi­ant had just re­cent­ly said that it would start to en­force its patent rights in wealth­i­er coun­tries. To that ex­tent, the com­pa­ny sued Pfiz­er and BioN­Tech in Au­gust, al­leg­ing that the vac­cine the pair de­vel­oped uti­lized parts of Mod­er­na’s tech­nol­o­gy that it had patent­ed be­tween 2010 and 2016.

The mRNA player Moderna is further cementing its presence on the African continent.

Moderna announced on Thursday that it has finalized an agreement with Kenya’s government to partner up and bring an mRNA manufacturing facility to the east African nation. The new facility aims to manufacture up to 500 million doses of vaccines annually. Moderna also said the new facility will have the ability to spike its production capabilities to respond to public health emergencies on the continent or globally.

Paul McKenzie took over as CEO of Australian pharma giant CSL this month, following in the footsteps of long-time CSL vet Paul Perreault.

With an eye on mRNA, and quickly commercializing its new, $3.5 million-per-shot gene therapy for hemophilia B, McKenzie and chief medical officer Bill Mezzanotte answered some questions from Endpoints News this afternoon about where McKenzie is going to take the company and what advances may be coming to market from CSL’s pipeline. Below is a lightly edited transcript.

Liverpool may be known for rock and roll and premier league football, but the China-based contract manufacturer Pharmaron is looking to make it a bigger hub for cell and gene therapy manufacturing.

As part of Pharmaron’s further commitment to Merseyside county, it plans to build an 8,000-square-meter facility, or around 86,000 square feet, which includes a boost to the manufacturing capacity of 3,500 square meters, or 37,600 square feet. The price tag for the expansion will be £151 million ($186 million), with Pharmaron receiving a grant from the UK Government’s Life Sciences Innovation Manufacturing Fund (LSIMF).