BioNTech strikes deal to launch 'game changing' mRNA vaccine factory in Africa

BioNTech has struck a deal with Rwanda and Senegal to begin construction of a “game changing” mRNA vaccine manufacturing facility in Africa next summer.

The agreement - signed with the Rwandan government and Institut Pasteur de Dakar in Senegal - has been welcomed as a significant step towards tackling vast global imbalances in the Covid jab rollout, and producing vaccines “for Africans, by Africans in Africa”.

“State-of-the-art facilities like this will be life-savers and game changers for Africa,” said Dr Matshidiso Moeti, the regional director of the World Health Organization’s Africa office. “This is also crucial for transferring knowledge and know-how, bringing in new jobs and skills and ultimately strengthening Africa’s health security.”

Under the deal, signed on Tuesday, BioNTech said it will begin the construction of a production line with the capacity to produce and package 50 million vaccine doses a year in the middle of next year.

The eventual aim, the company added, is to create a “decentralised and robust” manufacturing network, capable of producing “several hundreds of million” mRNA vaccine doses annually.

While a large chunk of these doses will be the Pfizer-BioNTech coronavirus vaccine, the company said facilities could also be used to make shots for other diseases that affect Africa.

BioNTech unveiled plans to develop a malaria vaccine in July and the chief executive, Ugur Sahin, has suggested he said he intends to develop a shot to protect against tuberculosis and, ultimately, HIV.

“Together, we will work on developing a regional manufacturing network to support the access to vaccines manufactured in Africa, for Africa,” Dr Sahin said in a statement. “Our goal is to develop vaccines in the African Union and to establish sustainable vaccine production capabilities to jointly improve medical care in Africa.”

BioNTech added that it will initially staff, own and operate the vaccine facility, but it plans to transfer manufacturing capacity and knowledge to local partners. The Rwandan government and Institut Pasteur de Dakar are also set to scale-up their “fill and finish” capacities as part of the deal.

Although the agreement will do little to ease vaccine shortages on the continent in the short term, it marks a substantial step forward in BioNTech’s push into Africa. The company also announced plans earlier this year to work with South Africa’s Biovac Institute to open a facility for filling vaccine vials.

The site is set to begin production next year, producing over 100 million doses annually. But this vaccine will still be imported from Europe, rather than produced in Africa.

Other pharmaceuticals have also unveiled plans to bolster their presence across the continent, amid mounting criticism of vast inequities in the global rollout and calls for a waiver of intellectual property - which some campaigners say would help solve vaccine scarcity.

Worldwide, fewer than three per cent of coronavirus shots have been administered in Africa, despite the continent being home to roughly 15 per cent of the global population.

Earlier this month Moderna announced it would invest $500 million to establish an mRNA factory in Africa within two to four years. Those plans appear to be at a relatively early stage with few concrete details, including where the site might be based.

Separately, the US-based pharmaceutical also said it had agreed a deal, part brokered by America, to make 110 million doses available to Africa at its “lowest tier price” - and deliver an initial 15 million of these shots before the end of the year.

“The BioNTech partnership will not only build physical infrastructure but also strengthen human capacity in Africa to develop the most advanced vaccine technologies,” said Aïssata Tall Sall, Senegal’s Minister of Foreign Affairs.

Dr Daniel Ngamije, Rwanda's Minister of Health, added that the deal will help ensure Africa is better prepared to counter future health threats, and less reliant on the rest of the world for medical technologies.

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