BioNTech Plans Modular Vaccine Factories in Africa

(L–R) Ugur Sahin, BioNTech founder, his wife Ozlem Tureci, co-founder and Chief Medical Officer of BioNTech, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, Director General of the World Health Organization WHO, and Holm Keller, Executive Chairman of the kENUP Foundation, stand together during the presentation of manufacturing facilities in Marburg, Germany, on Feb. 16, 2022. Andreas Arnold/dpa via AP

BERLIN—German vaccine maker BioNTech, which developed the first widely approved shot against COVID-19 together with Pfizer, unveiled plans Wednesday to establish manufacturing facilities in Africa that would boost the availability of much-needed medicines on the continent.

The modular design presented at a ceremony in Marburg, Germany, consists of shipping containers fitted with the equipment necessary to make the company’s mRNA-based vaccine, save for the final step of putting doses into bottles, a process known as fill and finish.