April 11 (Reuters) - Moderna ( MRNA ) said on Thursday

it had paused its plans to build a vaccine manufacturing

facility in Kenya, following a post-pandemic decline in demand

for COVID-19 vaccines.

The company had said in 2022 that it would invest about $500

million in the Kenyan facility and supply as many as 500 million

doses of its mRNA vaccines to the continent each year.

It also had plans to start filling doses of its COVID

vaccine in Africa as early as 2023.

However, demand for COVID vaccines has since then waned

following the end of the pandemic and Moderna ( MRNA ) has not received

any vaccine orders for Africa since 2022, the company said.

The drugmaker said it had taken more than $1 billion in

losses and write-downs related to the cancellation of previous

orders from Africa.

(Reporting by Leroy Leo in Bengaluru; Editing by Shailesh Kuber

and Sriraj Kalluvila)