Biotech’s Vaccine Plans for Africa

This should start in 2024, in addition to the Covid-19 vaccine, if approved, an mRNA vaccine against, for example, tuberculosis and malaria can be produced there. Yet there is also criticism of the Africa plans of the German company from Mainz, which became world famous during the pandemic.

On a hot afternoon, Biontech manager Miriam Ostheimer, who is responsible for construction in Kigali, explains to a delegation of Rhineland-Palatinate Prime Minister Malu Dreyer how the container module core system should look and function. Ostheimer does this not at its actual location in a special economic zone where Volkswagen has already established itself, but at a nearby university. Heavy machinery is said to be currently in use at the production site.

In December, the first special containers, the so-called “BioNTainers”, left Ireland for Africa. They should arrive in Rwanda in March and Biontech plans to start production in the course of 2024. Initially, for example, two “BioNTainers” could produce 50 million doses of Biontech/Pfizer’s Covid-19 vaccine Comirnaty per year, and the capacity should be doubled in the future.

In February 2022, Biontech presented the idea of ​​the modular and therefore movable system with containers in Marburg. Prototypes are already there. The factories have cleanrooms, airlocks for materials and technology and so-called ultrapure water is also used to clean the production equipment accordingly.

Ostheimer explains that speed and flexibility were important at conception. It is possible to switch to the production of other mRNA vaccines with relatively little effort. “You then have the kitchen and only have to change the ingredients,” Ostheimer says. Parallel work is currently underway in many areas, such as how to meet the requirements of the Rwandan Drugs Authority or other local regulations. All Rwandan partners are very goal-oriented, praises Ostheimer.

Biontech emphasizes that Rwanda must be the start in Africa. Another location is planned in Senegal, and possibly another in South Africa. All vaccines manufactured in Africa are destined for the African Union Member States. The company plans to hire about 100 employees in Kigali by the end of 2024. Interest is high, more than 2000 applications have been received for the first 24 vacancies, nine out of ten applicants are of Rwandan descent. A recently recruited Rwandan worker studied at the Technical University of Kaiserslautern, again affiliated with the German state of Rhineland-Palatinate, home of Biontech and has maintained a partnership with Rwanda for 40 years.

But what are others saying about the Mainz project in Kigali and beyond? Doctors Without Borders applauds that Biontech is building production capacity in Africa. It is always positive to produce vaccines where they are needed, says vaccine expert Meike Schwarz. “But we would have liked to have acted faster during the pandemic, for example through a technology transfer to manufacturers in the Global South or cooperation with the mRNA Hub.”

Schwarz refers to the mRNA hub set up by the World Health Organization in South Africa, which is committed to technology transfer. According to a study by “Doctors Without Borders,” more than 100 companies in the South would have been technically and regulatoryly able to set up vaccine production, Schwarz explains.

Anna Marriott, health policy expert at Oxfam, also refers to this research. There is expertise in many African countries and last year’s study identified eight potential production sites there. She says: “Had Biontech heeded the WHO’s call to share its vaccine technology with the mRNA hub, manufacturing facilities in Africa would already be in production and numerous other manufacturing facilities in low- and middle-income countries would be at least in preparation. to be.”

It is clear that in addition to Biontech’s plans, a lot is also happening in Africa. Moderna, the US manufacturer of the Covid-19 vaccine Spikevax, announced in March that it had issued a letter of intent to build an mRNA vaccine production facility in Kenya. Up to 500 million cans per year could be produced there.

The World Health Organization announced at the EU-Africa summit in February that with its support, patent-free mRNA vaccines will be produced in six African countries in the near future – in South Africa, where the first African Covid-19 vaccine is also produced . under development, Egypt, Kenya, Nigeria, Senegal and Tunisia. This vaccine should be ready in 2023. WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said in February that the coronavirus pandemic had shown how dangerous it is to depend on a few vaccine manufacturers.

(SDA)