Egypt seeks to allocate production line in VACSERA for Moderna’s vaccine production: minister

CAIRO – 10 September 2021: Health Minister Hala Zayed said Egypt seeks to allocate a production line in its Egyptian Holding Company for Biological Products and Vaccines (VACSERA) for the manufacturing of the vaccine of the American pharmaceutical company Moderna.

Zayed’s remarks were made in a meeting with Moderna representatives via video conference to discuss cooperation to secure coronavirus vaccine doses, a statement by the Health Ministry read on Friday.

This comes as part of Egypt’s efforts to diversify the sources of obtaining vaccines.

The meeting discussed allocating a production line in VACSERA in the Sixth of October City to manufacture Moderna’s vaccine with the aim of providing vaccine doses to Africa and other countries, in cooperation with international companies in this field and with a production capacity that reaches to 3 million doses per day.

Zayed invited the Moderna representatives to visit Egypt and check the manufacturing capabilities inside the VACSERA factories.

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The Moderna representatives, for their part, affirmed readiness to export coronavirus vaccine doses to Egypt and inform the Egyptian Health Ministry of developments regarding the latter’s future plan to produce the company’s vaccine.

Zayed announced late in August the reception of the first million doses of the Sinovac vaccine manufactured locally after finishing evaluation tests.

In a statement, Zayed thanked the staff at VACSERA for the manufacturing of the vaccine doses based on an agreement between VACSERA and the Chinese Sinovac company.

Health Ministry spokesman Khaled Megahed said the doses have been sent to 657 vaccination centers across the nation, including 145 centers allocated to serve travelers.

He affirmed that centers are working from 9 AM to 9 PM on a daily basis.

As many as 15 million Sinovac/VACSERA doses are in the final stages of manufacturing and analysis, Megahed added.