Square Pharmaceuticals of Bangladesh is pumping $74 million into a new manufacturing facility in Kenya as Africa continues to attract more production interest.
Square expects the plant will produce more than 2 billion tablets and capsules annually when it opens early next year, making it the largest pharma manufacturing operation in East and Central Africa, the publication allAfrica reported. The facility, located on a 15-acre site near Nairobi, will produce malarial and diabetes drugs as well as other unspecified medicines.
The plant is slated to be operational by early next year and generate about 500 jobs for skilled and unskilled workers.
"Square's investment to Kenya has come with a potential to transform a pharmaceutical import dependent country to a net exporter of pharmaceuticals soon," Tapan Chowdhury, managing director of Square, told allAfrica.
RELATED: BioNTech to start building mRNA vaccine manufacturing plant in Africa in mid-2022
Square is among a number of pharmaceutical manufacturers investing in new manufacturing in Africa in response to drug and vaccine supply shortfalls exposed by the pandemic. In October, most of Africa’s 50-plus countries reported they had not inoculated more than 10% of their populations for COVID due to a lack of end-to-end mRNA vaccine manufacturing capacity.
Pfizer’s COVID-19 vaccine partner BioNTech—and its rival Moderna—have each unveiled plans to build large manufacturing facilities in Africa. CDMO Recipharm said it plans to construct a plant in Morocco, and China’s Sinovac is eyeing a plant in South Africa.
Last week, Aspen Pharmacare signed a nonbonding deal with Johnson & Johnson subsidiaries to license and sell its single-dose COVID-19 vaccine in Africa.