17.02.2022

WHO affirms initiative has African “ownership”

BioNTech To Ship Modular mRNA Vaccine Facilities in Containers to African Countries to Jump-start Production
Photo: Paul Kagame/flickr, CC BY-NC-ND 2.0

Health Policy Watch "The German-based BioNTech, which co-developed with Pfizer an mRNA COVID vaccine, said on Wednesday that it will set up modular “turnkey” mRNA vaccine facilities to produce the vaccine in Rwanda and Senegal in 2022 – with a fill-and-finish collaboration in Ghana as well. South Africa, which is the new hub for the WHO-supported mRNA vaccine R&D and manufacturing hub focusing on open-access products- may also join the initiative later, said the company in a press release. Speaking at a press briefing Wednesday morning, which included the presidents of Rwanda, Ghana and Senegal, as well as WHO and Africa CDC, BioNTech CEO Ugur Sahin, described the new cutting-edge BioNTainer initiative for vaccine production as – following “the most elementary principle of reducing complexity by copying the manufacturing units having modular action unit and by copying the process and transferring it to another place."