BioNTech says aims to start building mRNA vaccine factory in Africa in mid-22

BioNTech on Tuesday said it had signed a Memorandum of Understanding 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.

BioNTech on Tuesday said it had signed a Memorandum of Understanding 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. BioNTech will initially build a production line with 50 million doses annual capacity, which could be used for COVID-19 vaccines, it said in a statement.

This will be branched out into a wider production network making several hundreds of million mRNA vaccine doses per year with the goal to transfer ownership and the know-how to local partners on the continent, the biotech firm added. Speaking at a media briefing in the Rwandan capital Kigali, European Union Commissioner for International Partnerships, Jutta Urpilainen, said that the initial site would be built in Rwanda.