The COVID-19 pandemic brought into focus the impact that mRNA technology can have on rapid drug development. mRNA is an attractive modality to work with because of its relative simplicity compared to other biologics; it is wholly synthetic and does not require cellular materials. Demand for mRNA-based medicine production in lower income countries continues to increase, as do investments in prophylactic and therapeutic indications such as infectious diseases and cancer. We developed a cost-model to compare all modalities such as…