On May 29, 2024, BioNTech and the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations (CEPI) announced they were expanding their strategic partnership to contribute to building a sustainable and resilient end-to-end African vaccine ecosystem. CEPI was committing up to US $145 million to support BioNTech to establish mRNA vaccine R&D, clinical and commercial-scale manufacturing capabilities at the Company’s facility in Kigali, Rwanda.

BioNTech’s commercial-scale manufacturing facility in Kigali was first announced in 2021 and inaugurated in December 2023. The facility was based on the Company’s high-tech, digitally enabled modular manufacturing units called BioNTainers, designed to manufacture a range of mRNA-based vaccines.

BioNTech’s Kigali manufacturing facility could become the first commercial mRNA facility in Africa, intended to support the African Union’s and Africa CDC’s goal of producing 60 percent of total vaccine doses required on the continent by 2040.