• BioNTech says shipping the facilities in containers is a plan to expand vaccine supplies in Africa
• Each facility could produce as much as 50 million doses a year
Germany’s BioNTech SE (NASDAQ: BNTX), which developed a COVID-19 vaccine with Pfizer Inc (NYSE: PFE), on Wednesday said the company is planning to ship its vaccine production units to Africa, the continent that was left behind during the pandemic to improve the supply of vaccines.
The factory prototype will be first constructed in Rwanda, Senegal, with the company expecting it in South Africa shortly.
The initiative will help the biotech firm deliver on a pledge, which it made last year to the African Union, to produce mRNA-based vaccines on the continent.
Work on the first mRNA manufacturing facility in the
African Union is due to begin in mid-2022, and the first container module is
expected to arrive on the continent in the second half of the year, BioNTech
said in a statement.
Following the announcement, BioNTech’s CEO Ugur Sahin told
Reuters TV that the company has no plans to enforce its intellectual property
rights, andother organizations in Africa can produce its shots without
authorization.
“Our goal is not to keep others from using our technology.
Our goal is rather to actively see to it that our technology is available on
all continents as safely and as widely as possible,” Sahin told Reuters.
Logistics, production and support local
workforce
BioNTech presented a prototype facility to Senegal, Ghana, and Rwanda presidents and other dignitaries, including the WHO’s Director-General and the German development minister, at its vaccine manufacturing site in Marburg, Germany.
Each facility, which consists of two modules and needs a
total of 12 standard shipping containers, is expected to arrive in Africa by
mid-2022, with manufacturing starting about 12 months after delivery.
The facilities known as ‘BioNTainers’ would be able to
produce as much as 50 million COVID-19 doses each and could manufacture shots
against other diseases.
BioNTech estimates that a modular facility would cost less
than the 150 million euros ($170 million) required to build a new drug
manufacturing plant with the same production scale.
The German company said it doesn’t intend to profit from
rolling out the BioNTainer project in Africa but is working on “different use
cases.”
Vaccines manufactured in these facilities will be used
domestically in Africa and will be exported to other member states of the
African Union at a not-for-profit price.
The drugmaker will initially operate the facilities before
transferring the know-how and operations to local partners, and local partnered
labs will oversee quality control.
Partners in Ghana and South Africa will support the
manufacturing with fill-and-finish capacities.
Concerns around unequal distribution of
vaccines
BioNTech’s plan is part of an effort to widen the access to
vaccines in the African nations where inoculation rates have fallen far behind
other parts of the world over the past year.
African health officials are also trying to reduce the
reliance on vaccine supplies on the rest of the world. The continent imports
almost 99% of all the shots and plans to reduce that to 40% over the next two
decades.
Moderna Inc (NASDAQ: MRNA)
CEO Stephane Bancel, last month in a health conference, said he sees that the
efficacy of boosters against COVID-19 is likely to decline over time, and people may need a fourth shot in the fall of 2022, which
will create a massive demand for the vaccine again.
Last December, World Trade Organization Director-General
Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, said that he is “very concerned” about the unequal distribution of COVID-19 vaccines globally, which
could dampen the economic recovery.
Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, the World Health Organization
chief in a statement, said BioNTech’s project could complement the mRNA hub and
its surrounding network.
ALSO READ: ‘The pandemic will not end,’ says WHO
“WHO is committed to working with all partners to ensure
every country can access vaccines and other tools to protect the health of
their populations. We can only achieve that goal through genuine cooperation on
local vaccine development, production, distribution, and uptake, using a
diverse range of platforms,” Ghebreyesus said.
“This innovative, scalable effort will help to meet
short-term needs, as well as longer-term projects like BioNTech’s planned
malaria vaccine.”
However, health advocates have urged drugmakers like
BioNTech and Moderna to support WHO’s mRNA COVID vaccine initiative instead of
pursuing their own vaccine projects.
Picture Credit: BBC