Kenya has established a new company to start vaccine production in Nairobi's Embakasi area by Easter next year.
President Uhuru Kenyatta said the company will be known as the Kenya Biovax Limited.
“The Ministry of health should operationalise this company to eventually manufacture vaccines in our country by Easter next year,” he said.
He said the pandemic had exposed the lack of manufacturing facilities both in Kenya and other African countries.
The facility is expected to be a fill-and-finish factory ahead of the country setting up a full-scale manufacturing plant to guarantee supply.
Such fill-and-finish facilities allow third parties to construct ready-made vaccines into vials, package them for sale.
The country aims to have a fully fledged human vaccine manufacturing capability by 2024, the National Covid-19 Vaccine Deployment Plan from the Ministry of Health shows.
The facility will be built at the former Kemsa depot in Embakasi, according to MoH.
It will also produce other vaccines, such as the polio drops.
Vaccine ingredients will be imported in bulk. At the new plant, the vaccines will be produced, sealed in vials, labelled and finished.
Government officials identified Embakasi as a suitable site after Kemsa Kitengela depot was ruled out as the area was densely populated.
In May, the Health ministry said talks were underway with the Oxford AstraZeneca manufacturers to enable importation of large quantities for repackaging in vials.
The ministry has said talks between two potentials partners in the fill-and-finish plant are almost completed.
“We found a place in Embakasi in the industrial area close to the airport. It has been evacuated and it is now ready for renovation,” vaccines deployment taskforce chairman Willis Akhwale said.
Akhwale is also a member of the taskforce headed by Kemri board chairman Daniel Mbinda. It was formed to realise plans for the vaccine plant.
“We have gone for what we call the APIs, which is the active pharmaceutical ingredients," Akhwale said.
"We have identified a partner and we are now in nondisclosure, which is why a lot of information is not available. We need to sign first," he said.
