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Biontech inaugurates first mRNA plant in Africa - Baerbock speaks of "milestone"

The German pharmaceutical company Biontech inaugurated the first production facility for state-of-the-art mRNA vaccines on the African continent on Monday. At the opening ceremony, Federal Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock (Greens) praised the factory in Rwanda's capital Kigali as a...

, and Wendy Allen

2023 December 18 . 7:47 PM

2 min read

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Biontech inaugurates first mRNA plant in Africa - Baerbock speaks of "milestone"

Africa has so far been largely dependent on imported vaccines. Only one percent of the required vaccines are produced on the continent. Following a test phase, the Rwandan Biontech plant is set to start commercial production of vaccines next year.

According to the Mainz-based company, it intends to use the mRNA technology primarily to develop vaccines for diseases that are particularly prevalent in Africa in view of the sharp decline in demand for coronavirus vaccines.

A malaria vaccine is soon to be produced in Rwanda and is currently in the clinical test phase. Vaccines against tuberculosis and HIV are to be added later, with the clinical test phase scheduled to begin in 2024. The vaccines produced in Rwanda are to benefit the African continent exclusively.

The establishment of the production facility is also a consequence of the experience gained during the coronavirus pandemic, when the poor countries of the South initially had little access to the new life-saving mRNA vaccines. At the time, it was "not possible to distribute the vaccines quickly and fairly around the world", Baerbock criticized.

At the inauguration, the Foreign Minister praised the "remarkable speed" with which the plant in Rwanda was built. The foundation stone for the Biontech production facility in Kigali was laid in June 2022. The pharmaceutical company delivered mobile laboratory units consisting of converted shipping containers to the African country for the construction. According to the Mainz-based company, it plans to invest a total of 150 million euros in Rwanda.

Baerbock praised the spirit of international cooperation that made the project possible. "At a time when we are talking about deepening rifts in world politics, we are showing what European-African cooperation can achieve," she said in Kigali, referring to the EU's "Global Gateway" investment offensive. Vaccine production in Rwanda, Ghana, South Africa and Nigeria is to be driven forward with around 1.2 billion euros, half of which is being financed by Germany.

Biontech founders Ugur Sahin and Özlem Türeci as well as EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen and the Presidents of Rwanda, Senegal and Ghana also attended the opening of the plant in Kigali.