February 17, 2022
WIPO welcomed the recent announcement by the German vaccine maker BioNTech to increase local production of COVID-19 vaccines in Africa by setting up modular manufacturing facilities to boost the availability of game-changing mRNA vaccines.
This builds on an agreement in October 2021 between BioNTech, the Rwandan Government and the Institut Pasteur de Dakar to jointly establish a manufacturing plant of mRNA-based vaccines in Africa. Yesterday, BioNTech announced details of this manufacturing plant. It follows a modular concept in which production will be carried out in a fully-functioning mini production line, fitted in 12 shipping containers.
“One of the big tragedies of the COVID-19 pandemic has been vaccine inequity. Agreements like the one reached between BioNTech and a group of African countries hold great promise in promoting access to solutions that are needed for countries to overcome the pandemic,” said WIPO Director General Daren Tang. He added: “Pharmaceutical innovation gave us mRNA vaccines, engineering innovation is giving us solutions for easier access.”
This new concept brings flexibility to vaccine manufacturing, allowing easy deployment, shorter factory set-up times and reduced costs. The simplicity of the modular approach, applied to the complexity of mRNA vaccine manufacturing, points towards opportunities to develop a dynamic production model in the pharmaceutical industry, where local production lines can be established in many places.
The modular production line concept for manufacturing vaccines can be replicated at scale for vaccines and medicines targeting a wide range of diseases. The use of containers compliant with shipping industry standards is another key element for scalability and deployment. This standardization allows the transportation of the mini factory in containers that can be carried by rail, ship, aircraft and truck without any handling and reducing delivery times and cargo handling costs.