Moderna to Build State-of-the-Art mRNA Facility in Africa

Moderna recently announced that it will build a state-of-the-art mRNA facility in Africa to produce up to 500 million doses of vaccines annually at the 50 microgram dose level.

The company will invest nearly $500 million in the new facility, including drug substance manufacturing with fill/finish and packaging capabilities at each site. In addition, Moderna will begin a process for country and site selection in the near future. 

“We are determined to extend Moderna’s societal impact through the investment in a state-of-the-art mRNA manufacturing facility in Africa,” Stephane Bancel, chief executive officer of Moderna, said in the announcement. 

“While we are still working to increase capacity in our current network to deliver vaccines for the ongoing pandemic in 2022, we believe it is important to invest in the future. We expect to manufacture our COVID-19 vaccine as well as additional products within our mRNA vaccine portfolio at this facility,” Bancel continued. 

So far, Moderna and its partners have increased capacity globally and supplied over 500 million doses of Moderna’s COVID-19 vaccine. Additionally, multiple efforts are underway to continue increasing capacity at a significant pace.

The recent efforts will help to add a manufacturing site in Africa to Moderna’s expanding global network.

In December, the FDA issued the second COVID-19 vaccine emergency use authorization to Moderna after data showed the vaccine may effectively prevent coronavirus in individuals 18 years of age and older.

And in May, Moderna announced that it will increase global 2022 capacity for its COVID-19 vaccine to up to 3 billion doses, boosting production at its owned and partnering manufacturing facilities. 

“After a decade of pioneering the development of our mRNA platform, we have been humbled to play a critical role in combatting the COVID-19 pandemic globally with our mRNA vaccine. We view Moderna’s work as only just beginning,” Bancel stated in the recent announcement. 

Moderna’s current pipeline includes 20 vaccine candidates in its prophylactic vaccines modality, including vaccines against respiratory viruses, vaccines against latent viruses, and vaccines against threats to global public health.