![]() The collaboration emulates a number of similar partnerships around the world: Egypt has been working with Chinese vaccine manufacturer Sinovac since August 2021, while Ghana has also announced plans to produce vaccines locally.īut how much this development contributes to reducing the continent's 2-billion-dose vaccine gap depends on how quickly the vaccines can reach the market, explains Tippoo. ![]() Any future deals could set up South Africa to become a vaccine hub: Tippoo says US vaccine manufacturer Johnson & Johnson is now in talks with local pharmaceutical company Aspen to make their vaccine under license. The company hopes to apply for a development license "in the fall of 2022," after which the commercial production of COVID vaccines could begin.īioNTech also aims to start production in the middle of next year. ![]() A BioNTech plant in Marburg, Germany: The company wants to begin production in Africa in mid-2022 Image: Boris Roessler/dpa/picture alliance "Biovac is in the process of making the necessary infrastructure changes over the next few months to initiate the technology transfer led by Pfizer," director of the African Vaccine Manufacturing Initiative (AVMI), Patrick Tippoo told DW from Cape Town. South Africa's Biovac Institute already produces traditional vaccines and could become a vital partner on the continent for BioNTech and Pfizer. South Africa set to become vaccine hubĮach candidate for the vaccine facilities has its own strengths to offer: South Africa has medical research capabilities and a pharmaceutical industry, Senegal's Pasteur Institute now produces yellow fever vaccines, while Rwanda has expressed interest in manufacturing vaccines and drugs. But like BioNTech and Pfizer, Moderna has not yet made a final decision. Moderna has confirmed that Rwanda, Senegal and South Africa could all be potential sites for the planned vaccine factory in Africa. "In the future, if there is a pandemic - which there certainly will be - we can retool the facility very quickly to produce the pandemic vaccine," he said. Moderna wants to set up the facilities so the company can produce multiple vaccines, he explained. So we will find partners, and put the main investment of about $500 million (€430 million) into building this facility." "We have several countries on our radar that already have good health care systems and are very interested in working in this area. "It's about having trained personnel who can help us with at least some of the clinical tests we need," Afeyan told Reuters news agency. Moderna-Boss Noubar Afeyan wants to invest $500 million (€430 million) in production plants Image: Guglielmo Mangiapane/REUTERS According to the company's co-founder and CEO, Noubar Afeyan, the most important thing will be to ensure good working conditions. Moderna said it hopes that its own factory in Africa will produce up to 500 million vaccine doses a year. While continents like Europe are now trying to combat vaccine fatigue, Africa is still hoping to ramp up its vaccine drive. Most of the vaccines that have reached Africa have come via the COVAX (COVID-19 Vaccines Global Access) initiative, as well as donations. That could mean vaccines against other diseases such as malaria, could also be produced.įollowing Moderna's announcement a week earlier, John Nkengasong, director of the African Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), welcomed the news, saying that less than 5% of Africans are fully vaccinated against COVID-19. The goal, Sahin said, is to develop vaccines with African Union member states and secure sustainable vaccine production capacities which will also improve overall medical care in Africa. "We will work together to build a regional production network to support access to African-produced vaccines for Africa," BioNTech co-founder Ugur Sahin announced on Tuesday.Ī production line with the capacity to produce 50 million COVID vaccine doses per year is currently in the works. ![]() Factory plans in the worksĪccording to BioNTech, a memorandum of understanding has been signed with the Rwandan government and the Institut Pasteur de Dakar in Senegal. Meanwhile, Germany-based BioNTech - alongside its US partner Pfizer - has also initiated steps towards building its first production facility for its mRNA vaccines in Africa as early as mid-2022. Moderna and BioNTech - which have both manufactured effective mRNA vaccines - are now engaged both working to boost production capacities in Africa.Īfrica has so far largely relied on supplies from overseas. A few days ago, US company Moderna announced that it was intensifying its search for a site on the continent. As countries around the world hit COVID vaccine milestones, many African nations remain worryingly behind in their initial rollout plans.īut two major companies are looking to change that.
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