Wed 27 October 2021:
Germany’s BioNTech, which developed a coronavirus jab with US pharmaceutical giant Pfizer, said Tuesday it aims to begin building a vaccine plant in Africa next year.
The project is expected to address the continent’s shortage of Covid-19 vaccines and boost its flagging vaccination drive, with only 5.2 percent of its population fully innoculated, according to the Africa CDC.
BioNTech said it was working with authorities in both Rwanda and Senegal and planned to begin construction “in mid-2022”.
BioNTech had in August announced plans to build “sustainable vaccine production capabilities” in Rwanda and Senegal, producing not only COVID-19 vaccines but also mRNA-based malaria and tuberculosis vaccines.
“We will work together to build a regional production network to support access to African-produced vaccines for Africa,” BioNTech co-founder Ugur Sahin said on Tuesday.
The announcement comes as pharmaceutical firms face increasing pressure to lift patents on their COVID-19 vaccines to help produce doses in regions which are still experiencing shortages.
The firm “will help in constructing the site for manufacturing and will also provide assistance in capacity building and knowing sharing,” Rwanda’s Health Minister Daniel Ngamije said, as he signed the deal in Kigali.
The facility will be located in the capital’s Special Economic Zone, he added.
The plant will initially have capacity to produce around 50 million vaccine doses per year, the German company said.
Currently, just one percent of vaccines used in Africa are manufactured on the continent. The African Union wants to increase this proportion to 60 percent by 2040.
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