Pharmaceutical company Moderna said it would invest as much as USD500 million in order to build a factory for producing messenger RNA vaccine doses in Africa.
The company said in a statement that the new factory would produce half a billion messenger RNA vaccine doses a year, including its Covid-19 shot and shots for other diseases.
Moderna CEO Stephane Bancel said in an interview with Bloomberg that the factory would be owned and operated by Moderna, but staffed mostly with local workers.
The company said it will start working on site selection soon, as not many African countries have the political stability, infrastructure and educated workforce suitable for a high-tech messenger RNA factory.
Moderna has been under pressure to manufacture its vaccine in Africa, the world’s least vaccinated continent.
Manufacturers Pfizer have already announced a deal in July to start producing shots at a South African facility.
The World Health Organization has been trying to convince Moderna and Pfizer to join forces with its plans for an African tech transfer hub, but a senior WHO official told Reuters last month that there hadn’t been much progress in talks with Moderna.
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