Moderna to supply the African Union with 110 million COVID-19 vaccines

Biotechnology company Moderna announced it would provide the African Union with up to 110 million doses of its COVID-19 vaccines, in an agreement partially brokered by the United States Biden administration.

Moderna’s announcement, which came Tuesday, comes amidst severe global COVID-19 vaccine inequity, as vaccines slowly trickle into many African nations and high-income countries fail to quickly donate what they’ve promised.

Members of the G-20 have pledged over 1.2 billion doses to COVAX — the international vaccine-sharing initiative — but have delivered only 150 million.

Only about 5% of the African continent is fully vaccinated, with African nations only receiving about 252.5 million doses in total. Despite these low figures, high-income countries are moving to provide third, booster doses, as well as vaccinating younger members of their populations. Countries are also stockpiling unused doses, with 100 million doses expected to expire in the near future.

The AU has also struggled to secure deals with pharmaceutical companies for COVID-19 vaccines, despite having the funds to purchase them because high-income countries pre-purchased most of the available vaccines far into the future last year.

“In almost all instances, without exception, we were told there would be no vaccines available for us to purchase in 2021,” said Strive Masiyiwa, special envoy to the African Union, during a press briefing on Tuesday, adding that the Moderna agreement was a “breakthrough.”

The agreement with Moderna is the second COVID-19 vaccine deal that the AU has secured through its African Vaccine Acquisition Trust — the first being with Johnson & Johnson to partially produce up to 400 million of its vaccines at the Aspen manufacturing facility in South Africa. Vaccines from both agreements are available for countries to purchase, and are intended to supplement the free doses provided by COVAX.

Moderna is expected to deliver the first 15 million doses in December, 35 million in the first quarter of next year, and up to 60 million doses in the second quarter of the year. According to Reuters, the U.S. will defer delivery of 33 million doses to give the AU its spot in the queue for Moderna vaccines.

“In order to secure vaccines from Moderna this year, it required the United States government to do what we had been appealing for, for many months,” Masiyiwa said. “The issue for us has not been the cost of the vaccines, it has been the availability of immediate access to vaccines.”

The AU plans to deliver 63 million vaccine doses by the end of the year to African nations, these will include the Moderna doses along with doses from J&J, as well as those donated by the Mastercard Foundation, Masiyiwa said.

Moderna has resisted sharing the technical know-how on how to produce its vaccine through a knowledge-sharing initiative to expand manufacturing of messenger RNA vaccines on the African continent, and has resisted licensing the technology to manufacturers abroad in order to increase the pace at which low- and middle-income countries can access the vaccines.

In its release, the company said that it is “working on plans” to allow for the fill and finish of its doses on the African continent in 2023 — the final stage of vaccine manufacturing where the manufacturer receives vaccine substance from elsewhere, which is then bottled and shipped. There is criticism that this type of manufacturing does little to create security around vaccine supply.

According to an article published in The New York Times on Oct. 9, Moderna has been “supplying its shots almost exclusively to wealthy nations, keeping poorer countries waiting and earning billions in profit.” This comes amidst pressure from the Biden administration for the country to increase production of the vaccines and provide licenses to manufacturers abroad. The company received U.S. federal assistance to develop the vaccine.

According to the Times, Moderna offered the AU doses at $10 each in May, but they would not be available until next year. The deal fell apart. In the release issued Tuesday, the company said it will provide the doses at the company’s lowest tiered price, but didn’t specify that price.

The company also has an agreement with COVAX to supply up to 500 million doses through next year, but according to the Times, the company had not yet shipped any of those doses.

Earlier this month, the company announced it plans to build an mRNA therapeutics and vaccine manufacturing facility on the African continent — but has yet to put out a timeline and name a country. In response to this announcement on a new mRNA facility, Dr. John Nkengasong, director of the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention, said that while this is welcome news, it doesn’t solve the problem of quick access to the vaccines.

The first 50 million Moderna doses have been purchased by the AU, and the remaining 60 million are considered an option for purchase starting in April, which the AU will decide whether to set off based on “the [company’s] performance in the month of December,” Masiyiwa said, adding that the AU is in the “position to secure more vaccines from Moderna,” but that it first wants to see more concrete details of the company’s plans for vaccine production in Africa.

In response to the company’s announcement Tuesday, Dr. Ayoade Olatunbosun-Alakija, co-chair of the African Union's African Vaccine Delivery Alliance, tweeted “Too little, too late.”