Moderna to set up commercial organisation in Switzerland

Moderna has announced its first commercial organisation outside North America in Switzerland. It also announced the appointment of Dan Staner as Vice President and General Manager, Switzerland, effective today.

Staner is responsible for Moderna’s presence and activities in Switzerland, building a team to cover a range of functions – medical, regulatory, pricing, reimbursement, market access, government affairs and commercial operations – for the Swiss market. As Moderna builds its European footprint, Staner will work in close collaboration with Nicolas Chornet who was recently appointed as SVP International Manufacturing, Europe, based in Basel.

“Switzerland is a leader in life sciences, with a dynamic pool of industry talent, scientists, research organisations, investors and global health policymakers. Since Moderna’s founding, Switzerland has played an important role in Moderna’s development thanks to the long-term support of our Swiss investors and their business advice. Opening our first subsidiary outside North America in Switzerland is a natural step for Moderna. I am pleased to welcome Dan Staner to the Moderna team. I had the chance to work with Dan at Lilly and I know that he has a proven track record in building and leading global biopharma commercial teams in Switzerland and around the world,” said Stéphane Bancel, CEO of Moderna.

“I am first and foremost honoured to have joined Moderna. I am very excited to have the responsibility for building Moderna’s first commercial organisation outside of North America. I look forward to working with Switzerland’s healthcare stakeholders as we face the immediate challenge of COVID-19. This is a wonderful opportunity for Switzerland to continue its leading role in innovation and biopharma for the benefit of society globally,” said Staner.

Staner brings over 25 years of experience in the global pharma industry, principally with Eli Lilly. His previous leadership roles have included finance, marketing, strategy, global product development and general management. His geographic responsibilities at different times covered Switzerland, Europe, US, Middle East, Africa, and South Asia. He is a Swiss national and holds an MSc in Economics and Business Management from H.E.C. University of Lausanne.

Recently, the Swiss Federal Government concluded an agreement with the company for the procurement of 4.5 million vaccine doses of mRNA-1273, its investigational vaccine against COVID-19. In May 2020, Moderna and Lonza, a Swiss-based company, also announced a strategic collaboration to enable larger-scale global manufacture by Lonza of mRNA-1273 and additional Moderna products in the future.