While it is way to early to say much about it, I think this is a disaster in the making. Too much can go wrong. It reeks of exploitation
The BioNTech mobile vaccine lab requires 12 containers to create two buildings, each 2-story, each created from 6 containers.
One produces the mRNA and the other produces the ‘serum’ or liquid the mRNA is mixed with.
I had guessed that these ingredients would be shipped from Europe but that is not the plan. Apparently the mRNA will be produced locally.
BioNTech will supply their own technicians to operate these labs while training African staff. The plan is to have the factories ready to produce by some time in 2024.
This is a very compressed time frame; in the US every part of the project would have to be tested repeatedly, and it often takes years to get a vaccine factory up and running. It could be done quicker if the standards are lowered.
https://www.dw.com/en/covid-digest-germanys-biontech-unveils-mobile-vaccine-units/a-60805059
German pharmaceutical company BioNTech on Wednesday introduced what it is calling “scalable vaccine production” with a new innovation called “BioNTainers.”
These are mobile units developed by the company, designed to manufacture and improve the supply of vaccines in Africa.
Twelve containers that make up the mobile lab are split into two modules with one for the production of mRNA and the other for the vaccine serum. The filling of the vials is conducted by local pharmaceutical partners…
Rwanda’s President Paul Kagame said Rwanda welcomed the initiative: “BioNTech’s innovative modular production system opens up a new horizon for global vaccine equity. Rwanda looks forward to initiating mRNA vaccine manufacturing in the near future, in collaboration with BioNTech and our partners in Africa, Europe, and beyond.”
European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen has also given the project her full support. “mRNA vaccines made in Africa, for Africa, with world-class technology. This initiative is a real trailblazer in our global fight against the pandemic,” von der Leyen said.
Just under 12 percent of people on the African continent have been fully vaccinated.
https://www.africanews.com/2022/02/16/biontech-to-ship-mobile-covid-vaccine-labs-to-africa/
Chief Executive Officer of BioNTech SE, Ugur Sahin delivers a statement at the manufacturing site of German company BioNTech in Marburg, western Germany, on February 16, 2022,
Sahin said BioNTech, which has sold tens of millions of vaccines developed together with US pharmaceutical giant Pfizer, was aiming to “install production sites for our mRNA technology on every continent”.
Opening a new factory to today’s high standards typically takes three years. It will be 12 months before the first doses produced by the container labs are available, Sahin said.
The containers could also be used to produce vaccines against malaria based on mRNA technology, were it to be authorised after clinical trials planned to begin this year.
(Already planning to make mRNA vaccines that do not yet exist?)
BioNTech employees will man the containers to begin with, while training local employees “to hand over the site in the mid- or long-term”, according to the statement.
(Now it is sounding more like a pilot project, as surely BioNTech is not going to be able to supply staff for all over Africa, as each mobile lab was able to produce up to 50 million doses a year; but Africa has 1.4 billion people, so it would need at least 28 labs to crank out one dose per year for 1.4 billion people. But batches are often spoiled, so it would need more than this.)
The vaccine technology will be shared without the patents behind it being waived, as requested by a number of countries and NGOs.
“Patents aren’t the key. When we install the technology and hand it over to a partner, they will also get the licence to operate it,” Sahin said, adding that BioNTech would assure the “responsible use”.
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-60400114
BioNTech intends to provide the containers, raw materials and know-how at no cost.
In return the host country would provide the land and, ensure that local infrastructure such as water and electricity is sufficient and reliable, and find people to work in the container.
So-called “filling and finishing” of the product would also happen in Africa.
The vaccines produced would be for use in the country where it was made or exported to other members of the African Union at a not-for-profit price.
“It’s not cheap, we’re talking millions” says BioNTech’s Chief Operating Officer Sierk Poetting. “We’re financing this at our own risk. We’ve developed this at our own risk. It’s our goal to bring this to Africa.”
It’s thought the first vaccines could be produced in 2024, probably in Rwanda, Senegal or South Africa.
Supplies of Covid vaccines to Africa have increased but rollout remains a problem. Some African states have used only a third of the doses they have received.
The European Union has said it will help fund programmes to train medical staff so it can shift its message from “vaccines to vaccination”.
https://www.africanews.com/2023/03/14/biontech-mobile-mrna-vaccine-labs-reach-rwanda//
Six mobile vaccine production units by German pharma company BioNTech arrived in Rwanda on Monday, (March 13, 2023) the first such shipments to Africa as the continent seeks to boost mRNA vaccine manufacturing.
The units, made from recycled shipping containers, arrived in the capital Kigali, where they will be assembled to make a vaccine production hub for jabs against a variety of illnesses.
“This is a historic moment,” said BioNTech’s chief operating officer Sierk Poetting.
The Covid-19 pandemic exposed Africa’s huge dependence on imported vaccines.
Less than 50 percent of the continent’s 1.2 billion people are fully inoculated against Covid-19, according to the Africa Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).
(Interesting that the African CDC also dissembles like its namesake. The real number is 11-12%)
The facility in Kigali — capable of producing up to 100 million mRNA vaccines per year — will take at least 12 months before it starts producing doses.
“The technology is scalable… It is also flexible so you can move it anywhere,” said Poetting, without providing details on the overall cost of the project.
The containers, dubbed BioNTainer, will also pioneer treatments in the development phase against diseases like malaria, tuberculosis and HIV that are among the leading killers in Africa.
(In other words, it will make experimental vaccines for testing on Africans. Presumably this is designed to curb Africans’ vaccine hesitancy. Such a delicate turn of phrase, ‘vaccine hesitancy’.)
“We are also thinking of cancer therapies that we are developing to be produced in these BioNTainers,” said Poetting.
(More experiments.)
BioNTech said it had employed nine local scientists, with a plan to increase staffing to at least 100 by next year and eventually have local employees run the facility.
Rwanda will distribute the vaccines to the 55-member African Union bloc.
“This shows the power of science, partnerships and humanity, what people can do to fight a terrifying pandemic,” Health Minister Sabin Nsanzimana said.
Rwanda’s facility is the first of three slated for Africa with deliveries planned for South Africa and Senegal, according to BioNTech.
capacity building is occurring at various stages through technology transfer partnerships at existing, developing, and prospective manufacturing facilities as exemplified by Aspen in South Africa, Institut Pasteur in Morocco, and the government of Ghana, respectively.
Installed-base scale-up efforts by Biovac in South Africa and first-of-its-kind vaccine production initiatives in Nigeria by Innovative Biotech, in collaboration with Merck, are also manifesting.
At the international agency level, the World Health Organization has established a global mRNA technology training hub in Africa.
The African Vaccine Manufacturing Initiative (AVMI) is providing leadership, building on its experience and expertise over more than 10 years of advocacy for local vaccine manufacturing in Africa.
**Source: More on the mini-vaccine factories BioNTech is sending to Africa | Principia Scientific Intl.