A nurse prepares a dose of Moderna Covid-19 vaccine at Oltepesi Dispensary in Kajiado, Kenya, on September 9, 2021.
Patrick Meinhardt | AFP | Getty Images
Moderna on Thursday said it has paused plans to construct a vaccine-manufacturing site in Kenya after a steep drop in demand for its Covid vaccines.
The biotech company said it has not received any vaccine orders for Africa since 2022 and has taken greater than $1 billion in losses and write-downs related to the cancellation of previous orders from the continent.
Moderna’s decision aligns with its broader effort to chop costs by resizing its Covid vaccine-manufacturing footprint. The corporate’s business took a serious hit last 12 months as demand for those jabs waned worldwide, with people relying less on protective vaccines and coverings against the virus.
Shares of Moderna fell 45% last 12 months, however the stock is up around 6% this 12 months.
In March 2022, the company said it might invest about $500 million within the Kenyan site and provide as many as 500 million doses of its messenger RNA vaccines to Africa annually. Moderna also had plans to start out filling doses of its Covid vaccine within the continent as early as 2023.
But the corporate has since determined that demand in Africa “is insufficient to support the viability of the factory planned in Kenya,” Moderna said in a press release on Thursday. Still, the corporate said it’s committed to “ensuring equitable access and meeting emerging demands from African nations” for its Covid shot through its global manufacturing network.”
The corporate said additionally it is working to develop vaccines for diseases that predominantly affect the African continent, equivalent to HIV and malaria. Those shots are a part of Moderna’s broader effort to expand access to vaccines which might be out of reach in lots of parts of the world.
But those jabs are still within the early stages of development, the corporate noted.
“Given this, and in alignment with our strategic planning, Moderna believes it’s prudent to pause its efforts to construct an mRNA manufacturing facility in Kenya,” the corporate said in a press release. “This approach will allow Moderna to higher align its infrastructure investments with the evolving healthcare needs and vaccine demand in Africa.”
