‘A drop in the ocean’: Moderna to donate more Covid-19 shots, BioNTech to produce vaccines in Africa
Seeking to address inequitable access to Covid-19 vaccines, two manufacturers touted plans to either expand production or boost donations in Africa. But the announcements were met with varying degrees of skepticism over concerns the efforts will not provide sufficient relief quickly enough to a continent where the shots remain in very short supply.
In one move, BioNTech (BNTX) announced plans to create a state-of-the-art facility that will begin construction in mid-2022 and become what it called a “first node” in establishing an end-to-end manufacturing network to produce vaccines using its mRNA technology. Currently, the company only makes a Covid-19 vaccine, but is developing vaccines to combat tuberculosis and malaria.
