Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance, has announced a groundbreaking initiative – the “African Vaccine Manufacturing Accelerator,” designed to inject up to $1 billion into boosting vaccine manufacturing across Africa.
The initiative aims to combat the vaccine access inequality experienced by the continent during the COVID-19 pandemic and leverage domestically produced vaccines to address diseases like cholera and malaria that claim the lives of hundreds of thousands of African children annually.
What you should know
The African Union (AU) has set an ambitious target for the African vaccine manufacturing industry, aspiring to supply over 60% of the total vaccine doses required on the continent by 2040, a significant increase from the current 1%.
The new accelerator initiative seeks to propel this vision forward, addressing challenges faced by previous initiatives that encountered high start-up costs and diminished demand as the pandemic waned.
Funding for the accelerator is sourced from the leftover money in the COVAX initiative, a program established during the pandemic to facilitate vaccine distribution to the world’s poorest countries.
Gavi’s board, after consultation with the AU, the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), and other partners, has approved the initiative. The official launch is slated for June 2024 during an event hosted by the Africa CDC and France.
David Kinder, Gavi’s director of development finance, emphasized the accelerator’s primary goal – setting aside funds over ten years to establish a sustainable African vaccine industry.
How the accelerator works
The initiative’s mechanism will pay manufacturers a sum when their vaccines receive approval from the World Health Organisation.
Additional payments will be made if these companies secure bids to supply vaccines through Gavi, enabling competitive pricing and allowing African nations to choose locally-produced vaccines at competitive rates.
The accelerator will focus on diseases like cholera and explore new technologies such as viral vector and mRNA vaccines, instrumental during the COVID-19 pandemic and promising for future pandemics.
Alongside this initiative, Gavi’s board also approved plans to allocate approximately $290 million to “catch up” routine immunizations for children impacted by pandemic-related disruptions.
Additionally, a $500 million “first response” fund was approved to ensure immediate financial resources during future pandemics.
This multi-pronged approach signals a significant step forward in bolstering Africa’s vaccine manufacturing capabilities and improving healthcare outcomes across the continent.
