Moderna to open an office in the Netherlands

Moderna plans to open a commercial office in the Netherlands and five other European countries to "reinforce Monderna's commitment to Europe," the American vaccine company said in a press release on Wednesday. The company did not say where the Dutch office would be located or how many people it would employ.

In addition to the Netherlands, Moderna plans to "establish a commercial presence" in Belgium, Denmark, Norway, Poland, and Sweden "to support the delivery of mRNA vaccines and therapeutics locally." The company also plans to expand in Asia.

"Europe has played a critical role in Moderna's ability to manufacture and deliver our Covid-19 vaccine across the world, protecting millions of people from Covid-19 infection, hospitalization, and death," said Moderna CEO Stephane Bancel. "I look forward to furthering our collaborations with European researchers and partners to leverage our mRNA technology and expand treatment options to improve the lives of patients across Europe."

The announcement came on the same day that Bancel told CNBC that it is "reasonable" to think the Covid-19 pandemic is in its final stages. "There's an 80 percent chance that as Omicron evolves or SARS-CoV-2 virus evolves, we are going to see less and less virulent viruses," he said to the news agency. He added that there's a 20 percent chance that the next mutation will be more severe than Omicron instead of less severe. 

"The fact is that this virus is not going away, as we've been saying since almost the beginning - this virus is going to stay with humans forever, like flu, and we have to live with it," Bancel said to CBNC.

Moderna, therefore, "continues to scale up the manufacturing and distribution of its Covid-19 vaccine and future mRNA vaccines and therapeutics,' the company said in a statement.