Kenya has suffered a blow after United States (US)-based biotech company Moderna put plans to build a multi-million-dollar vaccine plant in Kenya on hold.
The company is reported to have dropped the agenda of building the plant which was aimed at investing in pandemic preparedness in Africa, due to the decline in sales of Covid-19 jabs.
According to the Financial Times, Moderna in a statement confirmed it had paused its efforts to build a vaccine plant in the country due to a significant drop in vaccine uptake in Africa which saw it incur more than Ksh129.99 billion ($1 million) in losses.
These losses were incurred following the cancellation of previous vaccine orders made by African countries.
“The demand in Africa for Covid-19 vaccines has declined since the pandemic and is insufficient to support the viability of the factory,” read part of the statement.
This move is a blow to the government which had struck a deal with the Boston-based company in 2023 to invest about $200million (Ksh25.9 billion) in a medical facility.
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Moderna Announces Plan to Build Facility
The biotechnology company had announced that the plant would be its first ever in Africa.
“The finalization of our agreement with the Government of the Republic of Kenya is a key pillar of our global public health strategy, where we hope to bring mRNA innovation to the people of Africa in areas of high unmet need, such as acute respiratory infections, as well as persistent infectious diseases like HIV and outbreak threats such as Zika and Ebola,” said Stéphane Bancel, Chief Executive Officer of Moderna.
According to a statement by the company, the plant was aimed at producing up to 500 million vaccine shots a year.
President William Ruto with several senior officials from the US and Kenya had joined efforts to get the deal over the line.
The government went forward to give Moderna several tax breaks allowing it to more than half its original planned investment of $500M (Ksh64.9 billion).
However, the Financial Times reported that the company is yet to buy a plot earmarked for the construction of the plant in a special economic zone near Nairobi.
In addition, the company was to purchase a five to ten-acre plot in Tatu City economic zone where costs to buy land range about Ksh129 million per acre.
Moderna is a biotech company that started as a research-stage company advancing programs in the field of messenger RNA (mRNA).
It has since transformed to an enterprise with a diverse clinical portfolio of vaccines and therapeutics across seven modalities and integrated manufacturing facilities.
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Covid-19 Emergence
Most recently, Moderna played a crucial role allowing the authorized use and approval of one of the earliest and most effective vaccines against the COVID pandemic after it was labelled as a global pandemic by the World Health Organization (WHO).
The reports come nearly two weeks after the Ministry of Health ruled out the emergence of a Covid-19 variant.
Director General of Health Patrick Amoth in a March 28, 2024, statement ruled it out after it was attributed to a spike in cases of respiratory diseases in various parts of the country.
According to Amoth, tests carried out from various patients in different listed sites confirmed that the disease was Influenza and not as earlier reported in some quarters.
