Refinitiv Newscasts - Moderna names Kenya for $500m vaccine factory

Pfizer

07/03/2022 18:23

Click the following link to watch video: https://share.newscasts.refinitiv.com/link?entryId=1_5x32vvkj&referenceId=tag:reuters.com,2022:newsml_OV281907032022RP1_930&pageId=RefinitivNewscasts
Source: Reuters

Description: Moderna has announced that its first mRNA vaccine facility in
Africa will be located in Kenya with an aim of producing 500 million doses a
year. David Doyle has more.
Short Link: https://refini.tv/3sORt7K

Video Transcript:

Moderna has picked Kenya as the location for its first mRNA vaccine factory in
Africa and said it expects to invest $500 million. Last year the American
pharmaceuticals company revealed plans to build a facility on the continent
with the aim of pumping out 500 million doses, including COVID-19 shots, every
year. That announcement came amid growing pressure on big pharma to do more to
manufacture vaccines in lower income countries. Rwanda, Senegal and South
Africa had been touted as potential locations. But on Monday Moderna said it
had entered into a Memorandum of Understanding with the Kenyan government. The
company said the facility would focus on drug substance manufacturing but
could also be expanding to include fill/finish and packaging capabilities.
Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta said Kenya and the entire continent had been
"left behind" in the early stages of the pandemic "not because of want, but
because of lack". Moderna, he said, had come to fill that space. There have
been several efforts in recent months to help the continent produce its own
vaccines using the advanced mRNA technology. The World Health Organization
last year set up a tech transfer hub in South Africa and in February the
WHO-backed Afrigen Biologics said it had made its own version of Moderna's
shot. BioNTech, which teamed up with Pfizer to make the West's most
widely-used COVID-19 vaccine, has also announced plans to begin work on its
mRNA manufacturing facility in the African Union this year