BioNTech in Rwanda, a game changer in Africa’s health sector

Author: Emma Mukasa

• 2023-03-17 05:28:00

On March 13, Rwanda received six shipping containers for the first BioNTainer, infrastructure needed to introduce the mRNA vaccine production facility in Africa for the first time.

The development marked a significant milestone on the continent on the road to achieve health security.

Rwanda was the first to host these mobile vaccine factories among the three selected African countries – Rwanda, South Africa and Senegal.

The BioNTainers - each measuring 800 square meters - are the clean rooms equipped with state-of-the-art production solutions.

They can produce up to 50 million doses annually and conduct trials on new therapeutics for malaria, Tuberculosis, HIV and cancers, among others.

Every year, malaria kills hundreds of thousands of children under the age of five years in Africa. The continent is also a home to two-thirds of all people living with HIV globally while 25 per cent of TB related deaths occur in Africa which has 16% of the world’s population.

Despite the fact that Africa carries a high burden of infectious diseases, it relies heavily on imported pharmaceutical products from the European Union, India, and China. The continent consumes nearly 25 per cent of the globally produced vaccines but imports 99 per cent and 95 per cent of its vaccines and medicines, respectively.

The mRNA vaccine production project in Rwanda will help the continent secure vaccine resilience for the future, and invest in new research to address the endemic diseases that cause millions of unnecessarily deaths due to relying on the outside world for medicine and vaccines.

This move is a milestone because it highlights how possible it is for Africa to achieve health security. The facility which will take at least one year before it starts producing doses, will have its vaccines distributed to all member countries of African Union.

Vaccine production goes hand in hand with skilled staff. Rwanda not only invested in establishing a vaccine production facility but also worked on providing training to medics.

 In June 2022, the country’s cabinet approved the establishment of the African Bio-manufacturing Institute (ABI), an innovative structure bringing together industry training providers and universities to help train, re-skill and upskill professionals in the industry.

The institute which will be fully funded by various partners including the Rwandan government and BionTech, is expected to provide a solution for workforce development, from short courses, to graduate degrees.

It will narrow the gap of lack of highly qualified staff with expertise in a wide range of specialties particularly in vaccine manufacturing.

Rwanda intends to build on this investment to attract a vibrant biopharmaceutical research and manufacturing sector. This will help the African Union to achieve its target of producing 60 per cent of the needed vaccines on the continent by 2024.