Eswatini Financial Times

Moderna pauses Kenya plant plans as Covid vaccine demand wanes

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Moderna said on Thursday it had paused its plans to build a vaccine manufactur­ing facility in Kenya, following a post-pandemic decline in demand for Covid-19 vaccines.

The move is in line with Moderna’s strategy of resizing its manufactur­ing network to cut costs, even as it aims to spend around $4.5 billion this year in research and developmen­t of several new vaccines, including for cancer and respirator­y syncytial virus (RSV).

Many of the messenger RNA (mRNA) vaccines that Moderna is developing, like for

HIV and malaria, are at an early stage.

“Given this, and in alignment with our strategic planning, Moderna believes it is prudent to pause its efforts to build an mRNA manufactur­ing facility in Kenya,” the company said.

Moderna’s strategy is a setback to efforts in Africa to cut reliance on vaccine and drug imports from outside the continent.

“To respond effectivel­y to infectious disease outbreaks or better yet prevent them in the first place, it is crucial that there is local vaccine manufactur­ing capacity and capability to support local needs,” said

Charlie Weller, head of prevention infectious disease team at Wellcome.

Wellcome is a health research funding and advocacy foundation.

The company had said in 2022 that it would invest about $500 million in the Kenya facility and supply as many as 500 million doses of its mRNA vaccines to Africa each year. It also had plans to start filling doses of its Covid vaccine in the continent as early as 2023. However, Moderna has not received any vaccine orders for Africa since 2022 amid waning demand globally, the company said. in the

 ?? ?? ▲Vials labelled “VACCINE Coronaviru­s Covid-19” and a syringe are seen in front of a displayed Moderna logo in this illustrati­on.
▲Vials labelled “VACCINE Coronaviru­s Covid-19” and a syringe are seen in front of a displayed Moderna logo in this illustrati­on.

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