Moderna (MRNA  ) has reached a memorandum of understanding with Kenya to build a mRNA vaccine manufacturing facility in the East African nation, the company announced on Monday. The agreement was reached with the support of the U.S. government.

The biotech plans to invest $500 million to build a state-of-the-art facility to make messenger RNA, the technology behind its COVID vaccines, with the goal of producing up to 500 million doses each year. This investment will focus on drug substance manufacturing on Africa for distribution through the continent, and the facility may be expanded to include on-site fill/finish and packaging logistics for the vaccines.

Moderna plans to be able to fill doses of its COVID vaccine in Africa as early as 2023 with this project, according to the company.

"With our mRNA global health vaccine program, including our vaccine programs against HIV and Nipah, and with this partnership with the Republic of Kenya, the African Union and the U.S. Government, we believe that this step will become one of many on a journey to ensure sustainable access to transformative mRNA innovation on the African continent and positively impact public health," said CEO Stephane Bancel in a press statement.

Moderna, as well as other prominent COVID vaccine manufacturers like Pfizer (PFE  ) and BioNTech (BNTX  ), have faced criticism from global health organizations--including the World Health Organization (WHO)--for not sharing their vaccine technology with lower- and middle-income nations so that they could produce the vaccine locally. The company has pledged to not enforce patents in lower- to middle-income nations.

Moderna for its part has pledged 650 million doses of its vaccine to the WHO's COVAX program through 2022. The U.S. government, which helped fund the development of Moderna's COVID vaccine through the Trump administration's Operation Warp Speed, has also planned to share more vaccines with poorer nations as its domestic infections begin to ease.

"Ending COVID-19 is a top priority of the Biden Administration and this can be achieved with increased global cooperation and investment. The agreement announced today between Moderna and the Government of Kenya to build a vaccine production facility in Kenya will not only contribute to ending this pandemic, but to long-term advancements in research and development on the African continent to combat future ones," said Jose Fernandez, U.S. Under Secretary for Economic Growth, Energy, and the Environment, in a press statement.

Moderna delivered 807 million COVID vaccine doses worldwide in 2021, with the shot being cleared for emergency use in over 70 countries. The company sold $17.7 billion worth of vaccine last year, representing most of its $18.5 billion full year 2021 revenue as the shot is the company's only commercially available product.