How Biontech wants to solve the vaccine problem in Africa

According to Biontech, the unusual production concept is based on the use of ISO-standard containers twelve meters long and around 2.5 meters high and wide. These are equipped with the necessary equipment using clean room technology. Six such containers each form a module for manufacturing the active ingredient and a module for filling the finished, formulated vaccine.

Biontech calls these modules “biotainers”. They will allow an initial annual production capacity of 50 million doses of vaccine and will be equipped to be suitable for the production of various vaccines.

From the point of view of the Mainz-based company, a major advantage of the concept is that the systems can be set up almost completely in advance in Biontech’s Marburg production center and that the production network in Africa can be scaled up comparatively easily with the container solution, i.e. it can be expanded step by step.

Milestone in global healthcare

Biontech boss and founder Ugur Sahin sees the model as a “milestone” that brings the company one step closer to its goal of improving healthcare by making its own innovations accessible worldwide.

Production manager Sierk Poetting believes that every Biontainer can become a hub in a decentralized and robust production network in Africa. “The modular and scalable approach could allow us to set up turnkey mRNA manufacturing facilities on all continents. Once established, this solution could support clinical trials as well as regional pandemic preparedness efforts,” said Poetting.

Biontech intends to initially operate and staff the production facilities in Africa itself in order to support the safe and speedy start of production of the mRNA-based vaccines in strict compliance with Good Manufacturing Practice (GMP) processes.

This is intended to prepare for the transfer of know-how to local partners in order to enable independent operation of the production facilities. The vaccines produced in Africa are intended for domestic use and for export to other African Union member states at a charitable price.

Like Biontech, Moderna also announced last year that it would set up a production site in Africa. Unlike Biontech, the US company has not yet backed this project with specific projects or timetables.

The initiatives of the mRNA specialists and leading manufacturers of Covid vaccines come against the background of growing criticism of the weak vaccine supply on the African continent.

Weak vaccination rates in Africa

Among all regions of the world, Africa is the one with the weakest vaccination status. According to data from the British website “Our World in Data”, of the approximately 1.4 billion inhabitants of the continent, only twelve percent have so far been fully vaccinated and a further 12.3 percent have been partially vaccinated against infections with the Sars-CoV-2 virus. Vaccination rates in the EU and the US are more than 70 percent, in South America and China more than 80 percent.

For this reason, many countries have long been pushing for the vaccine patents to be revoked and for the technology know-how for the production of mRNA vaccines to be transferred to African producers. This demand is supported by both the WHO and the US government, but has so far been rejected by the European Union (EU) and Germany.

In the middle of last year, the WHO announced the establishment of a technology transfer hub in South Africa in order to promote industrial production of mRNA vaccines in Africa. This hub is managed by a consortium led by the South African companies Biovac and Afrigen Biologics. Afrigen Biologics recently announced that it has made its first copy of Moderna’s Covid vaccine in-house. The South African company plans to get this vaccine into clinical trials later this year.

WHO welcomes Biontech initiative

WHO Director-General Tedros Ghebreyesus on Wednesday reiterated the goal of giving every country access to vaccines and other means to protect the health of its people. This can only be achieved through true collaboration in the development, manufacture, distribution and deployment of vaccines locally and through a greater variety of platforms. “We welcome Biontech’s initiative to increase vaccine production in Africa, complementing the WHO hub for mRNA technology transfer in South Africa and its global network of hubs,” Ghebreyesus said in a Biontech statement.

The initiative goes back to an EU decision in mid-2021. An EU representative reiterated on Wednesday that lifting patents on vaccines is not an option and, from the EU’s point of view, does not contribute to improved care. A transfer of know-how and production techniques is necessary – as Biontech has now announced.

Vaccine at cost price

The vaccines would be sold at cost price and exclusively to African countries, promised Commission President Ursula von der Leyen. The project was made possible by a cooperation between the African Union (AU), the EU and Biontech. The AU and the EU have set themselves the goal that by 2040, 60 percent of the vaccines required in Africa will also be produced in Africa.

On Thursday and Friday, European and African heads of government will meet in Brussels for a summit. Vaccine supply is a key issue. The EU has so far donated 148 million vaccine doses to African countries – for a population of 1.2 billion people. It is also the main donor to the Covax vaccine initiative. By the middle of the year, the EU wants to have made 450 million doses available.

Aid organizations criticize the fact that cans are not used in the EU at the same time. According to Oxfam, more vaccines are currently being disposed of in the EU than are being donated to Africa. The new cooperation is not sufficient. “The EU and Germany now want to focus more on vaccine production in Africa, but only under the monopoly control of European pharmaceutical companies,” said Pia Schwertner from Oxfam. “This would still not give African countries autonomy in producing the vaccines.”

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