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Nairobi (AFP) – The Moderna laboratory announced on Monday the construction of its first African anticovid vaccine plant in Kenya, after signing a previous agreement with that country that provides for the production of 500 million doses per year.
The company expects to invest 500 million dollars in this plant, which will produce messenger RNA vaccines for the entire African continent, which still faces severe shortages of doses to fight Covid-19.
“Moderna is determined to be part of the solution” in the fight against the pandemic, Stephane Bancel, its CEO, said in a statement.
Moderna says it expects its plant to start distributing the Covid-19 vaccine in Africa next year.
More than a year after the administration of the world’s first dose of COVID-19 vaccine, only 12.7% of the 1.3 billion Africans are fully vaccinated.
The head of the WHO, the Ethiopian Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, many times called for equitable access to vaccines to stop the pandemic and criticized rich countries for withholding doses.
Currently only 1% of the vaccines used in Africa are produced on the continent.
© 2022 AFP
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