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Moderna has reached a preliminary agreement with Kenya to bring a Covid-19 vaccine manufacturing facility to the nation, multiple outlets reported.
The pharmaceutical company announced the deal Monday (March 7), stating that it plans to invest $500 million to produce mRNA –– the key ingredient of its Covid-19 vaccine –– at the plant as soon as 2023. Details about where in Kenya the facility would be located haven't been released, but the goal is to produce 500 million doses of the vaccine a year for the entire continent.
Moderna, other Covid-19 vaccine manufacturers, and wealthier nations faced criticism over the last two years amid calls for sharing vaccine doses to countries and regions that didn't have enough. The company has pledged 650 million doses of its vaccine to the international vaccine sharing program, known as Covax, throughout 2022.
News of the facility comes as the US eases Covid-19-related restrictions following the winter surge fueled by the Omicron variant. Last year, Moderna sent out 807 million doses of its vaccine across the globe.
It's the only commercially-available vaccine and, according to data, provides months of steady effectiveness against Covid-19 hospitalization. The company sold $17.7 billion of its vaccine in 2021, marking a large share of its $18.7 billion in revenue.
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