Paul Kagame, the President of Rwanda, joined other key figures for the historic occasion, including the CEO of BioNTech, Uur Ahin, The Chair of the African Union Commission, Moussa Faki Mahamat, and the Director General of the World Health Organization (WHO), Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus. After the EU and Rwanda Food and Drugs Authority (RFDA) signed a Twinning agreement to facilitate the creation of a regulatory environment for pharmaceuticals and vaccines in Rwanda, the ground was broken.
President Kagame made the following statement on this occasion: “I am glad that the RFDA inked a Twinning agreement with the European Union yesterday. I appreciate it. Our regulatory capability will benefit from the knowledge and assistance of these partner agencies through a partnership led by France, Germany, and Belgium. Team Europe has supported us strongly from the start, and this is only the most recent example of their support. According to BioNTech, the facility will have two BioNTainers when it first opens and should have 100 employees working there by 2024. President of the European Commission, H.E. Ursula von der Leyen, stated, “Today, we are laying the cornerstone for the first mRNA vaccine manufacturing plant in Africa, in Kigali.
This endeavor exemplifies the enormous possibilities for African and European collaboration. Through our collaboration, African vaccine production will advance. We have attained the next milestone with the commencement of construction on the first African mRNA production plant based on our BioNTainers, barely four months after we announced the BioNTainer idea in February, according to Prof. Ugur Sahin, M.D., CEO, and Co-Founder of BioNTech. The first plant in an African network to offer a sustainable supply of mRNA medications will be this one. There are plans to build other factories in Africa and on other continents. Together with governments and regulatory bodies, we want to create vaccines for Africa here with highly qualified African specialists.
