BioNTech says it has signed an agreement with the Rwandan government and Institut Pasteur de Dakar in Senegal on the construction of a first mRNA vaccine manufacturing facility in Africa starting in mid-2022.
This is to help the continent ease health inequalities compared to other world regions.
In a statement, BioNTech, which developed the western world’s most widely used COVID-19 shots with partner Pfizer, says it will initially build a production line with 50 million doses annual capacity, which could be also used for COVID-19 vaccines.
This will be branched out into a wider production network making several hundreds of million mRNA vaccine doses per yea with the goal to transfer ownership and know-how to partners on the continent.
The firm says the goal is to develop vaccines in the African Union and to establish sustainable vaccine production capabilities to jointly improve medical care in Africa.
