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The Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (Africa CDC) has expressed its disappointment and has criticised Moderna Inc’s decision to reconsider its plans for building the $500 million vaccine manufacturing facility in Kenya.
The biopharmaceutical company, which gained recognition for its COVID-19 vaccine, announced in October 2021 that it will invest up to $500 million in an African facility to support the production of its messenger RNA portfolio.
Moderna signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with the Republic of Kenya’s government in March 2022 to designate Kenya as the site of its mRNA factory.
“It’s important for Moderna to have a plant in Africa simply because its future treatment portfolio is focused on many respiratory viruses and tropical diseases that are most prevalent on the continent,” the pharmaceutical company stated.
But two years later, Moderna will be re-assessing its plans as the demand in Africa for COVID-19 vaccines has declined since the pandemic and is insufficient to support the viability of the factory planned in Kenya, according to their official statement.
“Moderna has not received any vaccine orders for Africa since 2022 and has faced the cancellation of previous orders, resulting in more than $1 billion in losses and write-downs,” the company said in a note released April 11, 2024.
Africa CDC, however, junked this justification. “To blame Africa and Africa CDC for lack of demand for COVID-19 vaccines and therefore the reason to put on hold plans to manufacture vaccines in Africa, only serves to perpetuate the inequity that characterised the response to the COVID–19 pandemic,” stated the public health agency of the African Union.
While other vaccine manufacturers are progressing with their plans and construction in Africa, Moderna is abandoning a commitment to build highly needed and relevant vaccine manufacturing capacities in Africa, it pointed out. “This demonstrated that Moderna is not committed to vaccine equity and access to vaccines, through building manufacturing in Africa.”
In September 2023, German biotechnology firm, BionTech SE, had also put on hold its plan for a vaccine manufacturing facility in South Africa. As per media reports, the company was scaling down plans for vaccine production in Senegal too. These plants were part of a factory network envisioned in Africa by the company.
After inaugurating its first African site in Kigali, Rwanda on December 18, 2023, however, the COVID-19 vaccine maker BioNTech aimed to start production at its mRNA vaccine factory site in Rwanda in 2025.
When just one per cent of the vaccines administered in Africa are produced locally and the remaining are imported, expansion of local manufacturing of vaccines, diagnostics and therapeutics is essential for enhancing regional and global health security.
The continent must become self-sustaining, especially in the face of leading vaccine manufacturers like Moderna and BioNtech going back on their words.
By 2040, the African Union wants the continent to have developed, produced and supplied more than 60 per cent of the vaccine doses needed for the region.
It must also consider the assessment by Africa CDC, the Clinton Health Access Initiative and PATH on the state of vaccine manufacturing in the region. The joint assessment had flagged concerns on building sustainable vaccine manufacturing capacity in October 2023.