American firm Moderna, Inc. will build a state-of-the-art mRNA facility in Africa with the goal of producing up to 500 million doses of vaccines each year at the 50 µg dose level.

The company anticipates investing up to $500 million in this new facility which is expected to include drug substance manufacturing with the opportunity for fill/finish and packaging capabilities at the site. The company expects to begin a process for country and site selection soon.

Stephane Bancel, Moderna’s Chief Executive Officer said, “While we are still working to increase capacity in our current network to deliver vaccines for the ongoing pandemic in 2022, we believe it is important to invest in the future. We expect to manufacture our COVID-19 vaccine as well as additional products within our mRNA vaccine portfolio at this facility.”

Moderna and its partners have ramped up capacity worldwide and have supplied more than 500 million doses of Moderna’s COVID-19 vaccine to date. As recently announced, there are several efforts to continue increasing capacity at a significant pace. This announcement is a new investment aimed at adding a manufacturing site in Africa to Moderna’s expanding global network.