- By Jenny Hill
- BBC News Marbourg, Allemagne
Photo credit, Archyde.com
The presidents of Ghana, Rwanda and Senegal were in Marburg on Wednesday to view the container
The German company behind one of the first Covid vaccines has announced its intention to start production in Africa.
BioNTech, which produced the first mRNA vaccine, has developed a “lab in a container”, which could be shipped to multiple countries.
Scientists and workers would then produce tens of millions of doses per year, with the aim of remedying the great disparities in access to vaccines.
Supply has improved, but only 11% of Africa’s population is fully immunized.
To read especially on BBC Africa:
By continent, this is the lowest rate in the world, and the World Health Organization says Africa is still struggling to scale up deployment.
The presidents of Rwanda, Ghana and Senegal expressed interest in the German project and joined WHO and African Union officials at the BioNTech site in Marburg to discuss the laboratory container – and its challenges.
The “BioNTainer” is a rather bland-looking modular structure, but scientists claim that two of these two-story beige containers could produce up to 50 million doses of vaccine per year.
BioNTech intends to provide containers, raw materials and know-how free of charge.
In return, the host country would provide the land and ensure that local infrastructure, such as water and electricity, is sufficient and reliable, and find people to work in the container.
The “filling and finishing” of the product would also be done in Africa.
The vaccines produced would be for use in the country where they were manufactured or exported to other African Union members at a not-for-profit price.
“It’s not cheap, we’re talking millions,” says Sierk Poetting, COO of BioNTech. “We fund this project at our own risk. We developed it at our own risk. Our goal is to bring it to Africa.”
It is thought that the first vaccines could be produced in 2024, probably in Rwanda, Senegal or South Africa.
Deliveries of Covid vaccines to Africa have increased, but deployment remains a problem. Some African states have only used a third of the doses they have received.
The European Union has said it will help fund training programs for medical personnel to get its “vaccines for vaccinations” message across.
A model showed the proposed size for the container
Dr. Poetting, who came up with the idea of producing containers, has broader ambitions. The containers could be shipped to other continents and eventually be used to produce other mRNA vaccines, against malaria, for example. For now, he says, it is necessary to bring these vaccines to Africa.
“It became very clear during the pandemic that if there is a next pandemic, you will have the same distribution dispute again.
“There will be high-income countries with export restrictions and so on. We have to go and see and allow countries to do it themselves.”