Out of Africa? No! Very much in it, says BioNTech

BioNTech says it is broadening activities in Africa amid reports the German biopharma is reversing manufacturing plans in the continent.

Citing people close to the project, Bloomberg wrote BioNTech is scaling back its manufacturing plans in Africa with a plant in South Africa being dropped and a facility in Senegal now set to be a smaller-scale production site or R&D center. The publication described it as “a potential blow for Africa’s hopes of greater vaccine self-reliance.”

However, a spokesperson for BioNTech denied this was the case, saying “contrary to what the article states, BioNTech has even broadened its plans in Africa.”

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The company’s investments and project plans are “now aimed at both contributing to developing innovative medicines and establishing respective manufacturing capacities,” the spokesperson told BioProcess Insider.

“We value the efforts of each country and how they are contributing to establishing an end-to-end R&D and manufacturing network for mRNA-based medicines in Africa, for Africa. While our goal of helping to democratize access to innovative medicines remains unchanged, our plans have advanced in alignment with our African partners to reflect the progress that has been made in the meantime.”

This includes continuous conversation with its African partners and different assessments to collaboratively develop a “sustainable and holistic strategy for each country” that meets the continent’s needs.

The spokesperson did not address the South Africa and Senegal manufacturing plants directly, but said it enrolled the first participants in South Africa for a clinical trial for its mRNA-based tuberculosis vaccine candidate, BNT164.

Into Africa

The German biopharma signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with the Rwandan government and Institut Pasteur de Dakar in Senegal in October 2021 to start building an mRNA plant that summer.

A few months later, BioNTech broke ground on a modular scalable mRNA plant in Kigali, Rwanda and said it expected to set up more factories in Senegal and South Africa.

Again, it remains unclear whether a bulk production facility in South Africa or Senegal continues to be part of BioNTech’s plans.

BioNTech CEO Ugur Sahin was, however, committed to Africa in January 2023, telling JP Morgan conference delegates how the learnings of the pandemic highlighted that “poor countries didn’t get vaccines doses.”

Sahin said “the only way to change that is to implement manufacturing technology.” In particular, he drew upon the company’s activity in Rwanda, Africa but the firm confirmed it has also “identified other sites, for example, in Senegal [and] we are thinking about South Africa.”