AFRICA TO BUILD VACCINE PRODUCTION FOR 70 MILLION SHOTS. Devex Newswire

Africa is partnering with a slew of global organizations to bolster ownership of its healthcare, especially when it comes to vaccines. The partnerships are highly technical and hugely consequential.

For example, Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance wants to inject $189 million into Africa’s vaccine production ecosystem. The proposal aims to strengthen Africa’s regulatory network and make it easier for governments to buy vaccines, guaranteeing direct sales for up to 70 million vaccines made on the continent.

On the vaccine side, governments would go through Gavi’s standard cofinancing model. Eligible lower-income countries contribute directly toward the cost of their vaccines, starting at a flat rate of $0.20 per dose and rising with national income.

That money would be “only spendable on African-made products, representing a win-win by filling a public health need and securing assured demand,” a Gavi spokesperson says.

Meanwhile, the regulatory side would focus on streamlining vaccine approvals and procurement across the continent. “The African vaccine manufacturing sector is still so fragile and fragmented,” says Petro Terblanche, CEO of Afrigen Biologics. “If we can work on one dossier for 10 countries, and not 10 dossiers for 10 countries, that’s important.”

That’s also a prime objective of the African Medicines Agency, or AMA, which entered into force in 2021 to harmonize the regulation of medical products across the African Union’s member states.

In addition to the Gavi initiative, the Gates Foundation is also looking to beef up the fledgling agency by investing in it, as well as ensuring there are strong national regulators, which will be coordinated at the continental level by AMA.

Currently, regulatory systems in Africa are balkanized and manufacturers have to register products in each country. This means a lengthy, expensive process that can discourage companies from entering certain markets.

AMA is expected to address these challenges by introducing joint assessments, single inspections, and issuing opinions to guide countries.

A mature and effective AMA “allows Africa to take its own health and its own future into its own hands,” says David Mukanga, deputy director of Africa regulatory systems at the Gates Foundation.