ABA Editorial · Mar 21, 2026 · 16 min read
The COVID-19 pandemic exposed African dependence on imported vaccines and triggered a wave of commitments to build continental vaccine manufacturing capacity. The WHO mRNA technology transfer hub at Afrigen Biologics in Cape Town is one of the most ambitious responses. Moderna signed a USD 500 million Kenya plant MoU. BioNTech is deploying BioNTainer modular factories to Rwanda and Senegal. This report maps the category.
The COVID-19 pandemic exposed the extent of African dependence on imported vaccines and the risks that this dependence creates during global health emergencies. When high-income countries secured early vaccine supplies through advance purchase agreements and export restrictions during 2021, African countries found themselves at the back of the queue, with vaccination campaigns delayed by months as they waited for doses to become available. The experience crystallized a political commitment to building continental vaccine manufacturing capacity that could reduce this vulnerability in future emergencies and could support routine immunization with domestically produced products. The African Union subsequently adopted a target of manufacturing 60 percent of the continent's vaccines domestically by 2040, and a set of specific initiatives has been launched to work toward that target. This report maps the vaccine manufacturing landscape, the flagship initiatives, and the structural questions that will determine whether the 2040 target is achievable.
The most visible African vaccine manufacturing initiative is the WHO mRNA technology transfer hub established at Afrigen Biologics and Vaccines, a biotech company in Cape Town, South Africa. The hub was launched during the COVID-19 response period with the specific goal of enabling low and middle-income countries to produce their own mRNA vaccines to international standards. The partnership includes WHO, the Medicines Patent Pool, COVAX, the African Union, and Africa CDC. In February 2022, the hub selected six recipient countries for mRNA technology transfer: Egypt, Nigeria, Kenya, Senegal, South Africa, and Tunisia.
Afrigen's specific task has been to develop an mRNA COVID-19 vaccine based on publicly available information about Moderna's vaccine, without the assistance or approval of the original developer. If successful, this would be a notable first: an mRNA vaccine designed, developed, and produced at laboratory scale in Africa based on an established vaccine without transfer of proprietary information from the original developer. Petro Terblanche, Afrigen's managing director, has emphasized that the project is intended to demonstrate that Africa can take cutting-edge technology and produce cutting-edge products, challenging perceptions about what African biotechnology can achieve. Afrigen has reported progress toward manufacturing capabilities suitable for phase 1/2 clinical trial material production.
Afrigen has also partnered with Danish company Evaxion to develop a novel mRNA vaccine against gonorrhea, for which no vaccine currently exists. This collaboration represents an expansion of Afrigen's work from demonstrating production capability with an existing vaccine to contributing to original vaccine development.
Biovac, based in South Africa, has been a long-standing African vaccine production partner with capabilities including fill-and-finish operations for vaccines developed by international manufacturers. During the pandemic response, Biovac received technology transfer from BioNTech to support fill-finish of the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID vaccine, with commitments to distribute 100 million doses to the African Union. Aspen Pharmacare, also in South Africa, provided fill-finish capacity for Johnson and Johnson COVID vaccines. The Aspen experience was complicated by export arrangements during the early pandemic response that raised questions about how African-produced vaccines could be retained for African use.
These fill-finish operations represent an important but limited category of African vaccine manufacturing. Fill-finish involves converting bulk vaccine substance (produced elsewhere) into final dosage forms in vials and packaging for distribution. It requires sophisticated facilities and quality control but does not include the upstream production of the active vaccine substance itself. Full vaccine manufacturing autonomy requires capability across the entire production chain, including bulk substance production, which remains limited across African operators.
Moderna signed a memorandum of understanding with Kenya to build a new mRNA vaccine production plant at approximately USD 500 million in investment. If completed to the announced specifications, this would be the first major international vaccine manufacturing facility in Kenya and would have the capacity to produce approximately 500 million doses of mRNA vaccines annually. Moderna staff were expected to initially operate the plant, producing mRNA vaccines including the COVID-19 vaccine, starting with active ingredients and potentially expanding to fill-finish operations.
The Moderna Kenya project has faced delays and uncertainties since its initial announcement. Factors affecting the timeline include the broader post-pandemic decline in commercial mRNA vaccine demand (which reduced the urgency and commercial case for expanded production capacity), the complexity of building greenfield biotech manufacturing in African conditions, and the specific regulatory and infrastructure requirements for mRNA vaccine production. As of early 2026, the status of the project and its future timeline remain subjects of industry discussion.
BioNTech has pursued a different approach through its BioNTainer modular factory concept. BioNTainers are specially designed shipping containers (each measuring approximately 800 square meters) designed to produce approximately 50 million doses of Pfizer/BioNTech COVID vaccine annually. The modular approach was intended to reduce the building time for new vaccine production facilities by at least a year compared to greenfield construction. BioNTech announced plans to deploy BioNTainers to Rwanda and Senegal, with vaccine production expected to begin following installation and commissioning.
The modular factory approach has specific advantages in African contexts. It reduces the capital commitment required for each facility compared to traditional construction. It allows production capacity to be sited closer to African demand without requiring the same scale investments as conventional facilities. And it provides a template that could potentially be replicated across additional African markets if the initial deployments prove successful.
The MADIBA initiative (Manufacturing in Africa for Disease Immunisation and Building Autonomy), launched by the Institut Pasteur de Dakar in Senegal and the Mastercard Foundation, represents another substantial commitment to African vaccine manufacturing. The USD 45 million multi-year project includes the establishment and development of a world-class workforce to support vaccine manufacturing alongside physical infrastructure investments. Institut Pasteur de Dakar has a long history in African vaccine production, particularly for yellow fever vaccine, and MADIBA extends this foundation toward broader capability.
Vaccine manufacturing requires specialized workforce capability that most African countries have not historically developed at scale. Trained biotechnology scientists, quality control specialists, regulatory affairs professionals, and facility operations workers are all needed in sufficient numbers to support industrial production. The workforce gap is addressable through training programs but requires sustained investment over multiple years before it produces results. Physical infrastructure including reliable electricity, clean water, waste handling, and transport logistics is also essential and varies significantly across candidate host countries.
Three indicators will shape African vaccine manufacturing. First, whether Afrigen's mRNA vaccine development progresses to clinical trial and commercial production stages, validating the technology transfer model for broader application. Second, whether the Moderna Kenya plant, BioNTech BioNTainers, and other announced projects move from memoranda of understanding to operational facilities producing vaccines at commercial scale. Third, whether the African Medicines Agency and pooled procurement mechanisms develop sufficiently to provide the market infrastructure that commercial African vaccine manufacturers need to sustain operations. Vaccine manufacturing is the longest-horizon project in African health with the highest strategic importance for continental health security, and its progress over the next several years will shape whether the 2040 target remains achievable or becomes aspirational.