The German laboratory BioNTech, which developed the first mRNA vaccine against Covid-19 with Pfizer, announced that it has created mobile production units, which will be sent to Africa later this year to manufacture the vaccine on site.
“The question was: Can we make the manufacturing process so compact that it fits in a container?” explained the president and co-founder of the German company, Ugur Sahin.
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The laboratory, a pioneer in messenger RNA technology, designed two modules of twelve containers, one to manufacture the mRNA and the other to finalize the vaccine serum, which must then be placed in vials elsewhere.
This mobile factory, dubbed “BioNTainer”, will be shipped to Rwanda or Senegal, or perhaps both countries, “in the second quarter” of 2022, with the first doses expected to be available 12 months later. It is worth mentioning that opening a conventional factory of this type currently takes three years.
In the future, South Africa may “eventually” later join the production network, admits BioNTech. The modules were presented at BioNTech’s main mRNA production site in Marburg, central Germany.
With less than 12% of the population fully vaccinated, Africa is the continent with the lowest vaccine coverage against covid-19. According to Sahin, whose company has sold millions of doses of the vaccine it developed with Pfizer, the project revealed is part of an effort by BioNTech to “place production units of mRNA technology on all continents”.
Since the production of the vaccine requires around 50,000 steps, which must be carefully followed, “the idea is to standardize the container, validate the process in advance, before installing it”, explained the official.
Initially, the factory will be operated by BioNTech employees, who will then have to train local specialists in order to “transfer the factory in the medium or long term”, according to a statement from the company, which in less than two years has become one of the main players in the industry. world pharmaceutical.
This initiative constitutes a transfer of some technology, but it is not equivalent to the lifting of patents demanded by some developing countries and non-governmental organizations.
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