BioNTech has inaugurated its first manufacturing site for mRNA-based vaccines in Africa in Kigali, Rwanda, which might ensure vaccine equity on the continent.
The manufacturing plant, which began building in 2022, will be built on BioNTainers, which are identical replicas of the BioNTech factory in Germany.
African leaders including Rwanda’s Paul Kagame, Ghana’s Nana Akuffo Adod and the African Union chair person Moussa Faki Mahamat attended the inauguration of the first BioNTech site in Rwanda.
Starting the next year, the plant will be able to produce a product using an RNA method akin to the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine in up to 50 million doses per year.
According to BioNTech, it is on track to create preventative mRNA vaccines against infectious diseases like mpox, malaria, and HIV.
The company is also concentrating on diseases with the potential to become epidemics or pandemics
It indicated that a clinical Phase 1 trial for the company’s tuberculosis vaccine program BNT164 is already in clinical evaluation in four trial centers in South Africa while its malaria vaccine candidates are currently being evaluated in a Phase 1 clinical trial in the US.
Africa imports 70% of its medicines and produces only 1% of its vaccines, according to data from the African Development Bank.
Rwanda’s President Paul Kagame described the launch as a milestone for the continent in its bid to achieve vaccine equity.
BioNTech earmarked roughly $150 million to complete the construction of the Rwandan site, including the manufacturing units.
Senegal’s President Macky Sall said the ceremony was “historic for the continent and one of the best answers Africa is giving to the present and future” in the aftermath of the COVID-19 pandemic.
