BioNTech to ship mRNA vaccine factory kits to Africa

  • Date: 21-Feb-2022
  • Source: World Economic Forum
  • Sector:Industrial
  • Country:Middle East
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BioNTech to ship mRNA vaccine factory kits to Africa





Amid debate for better vaccine access for poorer regions, BioNTech has developed a vaccine factory made from shipping containers, that it plans to ship to Africa.

Local production of the vaccines will start within 12 month of the container installation.

BioNTech staff will initially run the procedure, whilst local partners are trained to take over the complex vaccine making procedure.



Germany's BioNTech (22UAy.DE) has developed a vaccine factory made from shipping containers that it plans to ship to Africa as assembly kits to ease what the World Health Organization has described as huge disparities in global COVID-19 vaccine access.













BioNTech's vaccine production plant is housed in repurposed shipping containers.





Image: REUTERS/Fabian Bimmer











The factory prototype will be instrumental in helping the biotech firm deliver on a pledge made last year to Rwanda, South Africa, Senegal and the African Union to secure mRNA vaccine production on the continent, where inoculation rates have fallen far behind other parts of the world. read more

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