‘Medicine is going personalised’: Moderna’s UK boss on the coming vaccine revolution

Darius Hughes was a key figure in Pfizer's pioneering Covid vaccine drive. Now he has changed companies - and sees a big future for mRNA technology

The man who launched Pfizer's Covid-19 vaccine in the UK three years ago - when 90-year-old Margaret Keenan in Coventry became the first person in the world to receive one - is now overseeing the construction of a manufacturing and research centre in Oxfordshire for rival US jab maker Moderna.

The company's Harwell site is Britain's first centre dedicated to the production of messenger RNA (mRNA) vaccines against new Covid variants and other illnesses, and part of the UK's 100 days mission" initiative - the ambition for governments to be able to respond to future pandemics within 100 days of a threat being identified.