As Africa advances on the ambitious journey of manufacturing vaccines and other pharmaceutical products, Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance, has expressed confidence in buying ‘quality’ vaccines from manufacturers. This was observed by Seth Berkley, Chief Executive of Gavi, during a press briefing on the launch of the Raising Generation Immunity 2023 report released on June 13. The report tracks the progress made in distributing life-saving vaccines to children, especially for immunisation against preventable diseases, and takes into account the disruption caused by Covid-19. The Covid-19 pandemic brought to light serious issues with regard to vaccine supply resilience in the areas of global health security and equity, particularly in Africa. ALSO READ: Construction of BioNTech vaccine plant launched in Kigali The report indicates that while Africa is the second most populated continent, it only produced 0.03 billion vaccines between 2019 and 2021. In December 2022, the African Union called on Gavi to support their goal of producing more than 60 per cent of the vaccine doses required on the continent by 2040, up from less than one per cent today. In that regard, African countries such as Rwanda, South Africa, and Senegal are championing the production of vaccines in partnership with the BioNTech Company, primarily to satisfy the continent’s needs and the rest of the world. The latest development is the shipment of the first modular BioNTainer - facilities equipped to manufacture a range of mRNA-based vaccines in Rwanda as a milestone towards the establishment of scalable mRNA vaccine production in Africa. Berkley said Gavi will obtain vaccines from African manufacturers, the same as other manufacturers of WHO-certified, high-quality and reasonably-priced vaccinations. Rwanda, along with other countries having pharmaceutical industries and vaccine manufacturing plants, stands to benefit greatly from this development, as the availability of a market implies a capacity for producing scalable volumes of products. “Given that the initial cost of production of vaccines made on the African continent is likely to be higher than elsewhere, Gavi can supplement the cost for a given time to get off that expensive hump until they are competitive,” Berkley said. This is part of the strategy taken by the Vaccine Alliance in partnership with African associates to explore a new financial instrument or Advance Market Commitment (AMC) specifically targeted to allow African manufacturers to secure access to Gavi vaccines on a sustainable and competitive basis. It will be carefully structured to ensure any volume targets and payments are set at the right level to incentivise market entrants in Africa while avoiding adverse impacts on prices or supply security in the global vaccine markets supported by Gavi. On the other hand, Dr Sabin Nsanzimana, Minister of Health, said: “Robust and reliable vaccine production capacity in Africa is a global public good, deserving of global support. Gavi’s market-shaping experience can help drive a truly sustainable African vaccine manufacturing industry.” Africa is making strides in this industry by establishing an enabling ecosystem that involves the Africa Medicine Agency – mandated to facilitate the harmonisation of medical products regulation throughout the AU, and the African pharmaceutical foundation - which aims at accelerating technology innovation in the continent’s health sector, both headquartered in Rwanda.
