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BioNTech supplies vaccine production facilities to Africa
BioNTech plans to start manufacturing vaccines in Africa next year. The construction of the first mRNA production facility is scheduled to begin in mid-2022, as the Mainz-based company announced on Wednesday. At a meeting at the Marburg site, Biontech presented the new production facilities in the presence of the head of the World Health Organization (WHO), the presidents of Senegal, Rwanda and Ghana. Development Minister Svenja Schulze was also there. Ugur Sahin, CEO of Biontech, said: “The innovation we have developed follows the elementary principle of reducing complexity by copying the production units and transferring them to another place.” The “BioNTainers” developed by Biontech are said to be equipped for the production of various mRNA vaccines such as the Covid-19 vaccine from the company and its partner Pfizer, but also for Biontech’s malaria and tuberculosis vaccines, which are still in development. The system consists of a total of twelve containers, each twelve meters long. The aim is to manufacture the active ingredient and the ready-to-fill, formulated vaccine. A plant should initially have a production capacity of, for example, up to 50 million doses of the Covid vaccine per year. Local partners are to take care of the filling and packaging. The company expects production to start twelve months after delivery of the “BioNTainer”. Planned partner countries are Senegal, Rwanda and possibly South Africa, a new project in Ghana is intended to support production with filling and processing capacities. Africa still imports 99 percent of its vaccines. Around 11.5 percent of people on the continent are fully vaccinated against Covid-19, according to the Our World in Data portal.
Planned partner countries are Senegal, Rwanda and possibly South Africa. A new project in Ghana aims to support manufacturing with bottling and processing capabilities.