LONDON (Reuters). Moderna intends to spend approximately $500m to construct a factory to make 500 million doses mRNA vaccines annually in Africa. The move comes as the pressure mounts on the continent’s pharmaceutical industry for drugs to be manufactured there.

Moderna The proposed location will include packaging and bottling capabilities. According to the company, it will soon begin to decide the location and country.

Stephane Bancel, chief executive of the company, stated that “We expect to produce our COVID-19 vaccination as well as other products from our mRNA portfolio at this facility,” in a Thursday statement.

As governments and drugmakers debate waiving IP rights for COVID-19 vaccinations, the move will help to end the pandemic.

The United States claimed it would support the proposal, but it has been opposed by the pharmaceutical industry, who argue that they have to supervise any technology transfer because of the complexity involved in the manufacturing process.

Pfizer (NYSE:) BioNTech, its partner in South Africa, struck an agreement with Biovac to produce around 100,000,000 doses per year of the COVID-19 vaccine.

Moderna, Pfizer BioNTech and the World Health Organization have tried to convince them to work together in their plan to establish an African tech transfer center.

A top WHO official stated to Reuters that there had not been any progress with Moderna.