Big Picture

Pharmaceutical manufacturers ramp up their COVID-19 efforts in Africa

Africa

With only 4.5% of people in Africa fully vaccinated against COVID-19, the pharmaceutical industry is facing increasing pressures to manufacture drugs in the continent from both Africa’s countries and the World Health Organisation (WHO).

Being urged to set up vaccine plants, and secure the supply of COVID-19 vaccines for the continent, both Moderna and Pfizer-BioNTech have recently announced their plans to invest and construct manufacturing facilities on the continent.

Moderna plans to invest US$500mn to develop a new COVID-19 vaccine factory for the production of 500mn doses, while BioNTech has confirmed the construction in 2022 of an end-to-end manufacturing facility.

These announcements follow the call for intellectual property rights for the COVID-19 vaccine to be waived to help end the pandemic, and give developing countries access to the vaccine.