After the German pharmaceutical giant BioNTech announced on Tuesday (October 26) that with the support of the European Union, it will establish its first African factory to produce COVID vaccine early next year. criticize.
After a two-day meeting between EU and African Union foreign ministers, EU Commissioner for International Partnership Jutta Urpilainen said at a media briefing in Kigali, Rwanda, that the first site will be Built in Rwanda.
The facility’s initial production capacity is 50 million doses of COVID-19 vaccine per year, partly funded by the European Union, provided by a 22 million euro loan provided by the European Investment Bank and a 5 million euro grant from the European Union.
BioNTech has signed a memorandum of understanding with the Government of Rwanda and the Dakar Pasteur Institute in Senegal, adding that the two plants will also be constructed for final production steps and bottling in a process called filling and finishing This means that all aspects of production will be carried out on site.
The German group said it is also in talks with South Africa’s Biovac Institute to expand its current manufacturing partnership. This summer, Biovac became the center of controversy over the export of bottled COVID-19 vaccines from South Africa to Europe, which embarrassed the European Commission.
This move was immediately welcomed by Josep Borrell, the head of EU foreign policy, who stated that the production of COVID vaccine “for Africa in Africa” is “the only viable long-term solution to any pandemic.”
Currently, approximately 5% of Africans have been fully vaccinated against Covid.
However, Anna Marriott, the policy leader of the People’s Vaccine Alliance, said that although the initiative is a positive development, it represents “it’s too late for a company that lost its life due to the pandemic.”
“It’s trivial to start building a factory in Africa only in the middle of next year, and then at some point only produce 50 million doses-enough for 2% of the population of the African continent-because they produce more than each in a factory in Germany. More than a month,” she added.
However, the initiative may help reverse the wave of criticism from African leaders who accuse Europe of being slow in providing surplus vaccines and practicing “vaccine nationalism.” Only a small part of the remaining vaccines promised by the European Union have arrived in African countries, and the supply from the international vaccination program COVAX has not arrived.
The EU also opposes a campaign initiated by South Africa and India to temporarily abandon the intellectual property rights of the COVID vaccine to allow African countries to produce their own versions of the vaccine.
At the beginning of the ministerial meeting, the Vice-Chairman of the African Union Commission, Monique Nsanzabaganwa, urged the European Union to recognize the vaccination certificates of Africans who wish to travel to Europe, believing that this would help persuade more Africans vaccination.
“In order to support these vaccination efforts, our European counterparts recognize that the vaccines and vaccination certificates issued by the authorities of the member states based on the recommendations of the African Centers for Disease Control and Prevention are relevant,” Nsanzabaganwa said.
“This will enable our sister continents to continue to participate productively, especially at the economic level,” she added.
Last month, the United Kingdom announced a policy to only accept COVID-19 vaccine certificates from a few African countries, and the European Union is under pressure not to take similar restrictive measures.
[Edited by Zoran Radosavljevic]
