Germany’s BioNTech, which together with Pfizer developed the first mRNA coronavirus vaccine, unveiled mobile vaccine production units housed in shipping containers on Wednesday, with the aim of bringing manufacturing to Africa.
“The question was, can we make the process compact enough to fit in a container?” BioNTech CEO and co-founder Ugur Sahin told AFP.
The vaccine maker aims to start setting up the “first manufacturing facility in the African Union” by “mid-2022,” the group said in a statement.
The company said it hoped to send the so-called “BioNTainers” to Rwanda, Senegal or both countries.
Rwandan President Paul Kagame and his Senegalese counterpart Macky Sall attended the announcement at BioNTech’s mRNA production site in Marburg, Germany, along with Ghanaian President Nana Akufo-Addo and Head of the World Health Organization, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus.
Africa is the least vaccinated continent on Earth. More than a year after the first coronavirus vaccines were given and two years into the pandemic, just under 12 percent of Africans have been fully vaccinated.
Earlier this month, South African biotech firm Biologics announced it had produced the continent’s first coronavirus vaccine based on mRNA technology, using the publicly available genetic code used by BioNTech rival Moderna.
Sahin said that BioNTech, which has sold tens of millions of vaccines developed together with US pharmaceutical giant Pfizer, aimed to “set up production sites for our mRNA technology on every continent.”
South Africa could “potentially” join the mobile lab recipient list, BioNTech said.
The 12 containers that make up the laboratory are divided into two modules, one for the production of mRNA and the other for the vaccine serum, before the local partners take charge of filling the vials.
The manufacture of the vaccine involves some 50,000 steps that must be followed meticulously. But containers overcome this challenge by having “the process pre-validated” before installing them, Sahin explained.
Opening a new factory to today’s high standards typically takes three years. It will be 12 months before the first doses produced by container labs are available, Sahin said.
The containers could also be used to produce malaria vaccines based on mRNA technology, if licensed after clinical trials begin this year.
BioNTech employees will handle the containers to start with, while training local employees “to deliver the site in the medium to long term,” according to the release.
The vaccine technology will be shared without giving up the patents that support it, as requested by several countries and NGOs.
“Patents are not the key. When we install the technology and hand it over to a partner, they will also get the license to operate it,” Sahin said, adding that BioNTech would ensure “responsible use.”
Agency Report
