German laboratory BioNTech said on Tuesday that it will begin construction of messenger RNA vaccine production sites in Africa, Senegal and Rwanda in mid-2022.
The company signed a letter of intent with the government of Rwanda and the Institut Pasteur in Dakar, Senegal, confirming a commitment made at the end of August between stakeholders during a meeting in Berlin, according to a statement.
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The future production line, whose precise location is not communicated, will be the first step of a
"central node in a decentralized and robust production network in Africa"
, says the company from Mainz (western Germany ).
This infrastructure will initially be able to produce the messenger RNA necessary for the manufacture of 50 million vaccines against Covid-19 per year and it is expected that the capacity will be gradually increased to several hundred million doses of messenger RNA vaccines.
, "By adding other production lines and sites to the manufacturing network on the continent".
1% of vaccines used in Africa produced on the continent
“Our aim is to develop vaccines within the African Union (AU) and develop sustainable vaccine production capacities to jointly improve medical care in Africa,”
says Ugur Sahin, CEO and co-founder of BioNTech.
Currently, almost 1% of vaccines used in Africa are manufactured on the continent.
The African Union wants to increase this proportion to 60% by 2040. At the start of production, BioNTech will provide the necessary personnel but then plans to
“transfer manufacturing capacities and know-how to local partners”. *
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BioNTech is working on partial manufacture of its anti-Covid vaccine - developed with Pfizer in South Africa next year.
For this project, the German biotech teamed up with the Biovac laboratory, located in Cape Town, to carry out the final bottling stage.
