Plans for greater vaccine autonomy are gaining momentum as the continent seeks to reduce reliance on foreign companies, which supply about 80% of the medicines and 99% of the vaccines used in the region, according to Aspen Pharmacare Holdings.
“The establishment of strong domestic industries in Africa will ensure sufficient supplies of critical therapeutic drugs,” Stavros Nikolaou, head of strategic trade at Aspen, said on Monday after talks at a regional health conference in Egypt.
The Durban, South Africa-based company has already signed a deal with India's Serum Institute to manufacture and distribute four of its Aspen-branded vaccines in Africa, where the COVID-19 pandemic has exposed a chronic shortage of vaccine-making capacity.
Nicolaou said having manufacturing autonomy is very important, but you can't talk about equity and sustainability without talking about protecting intellectual property, especially when it comes to chronic and endemic diseases.
One way to improve local manufacturing during patent expirations, which can take 20 years, is through so-called fill-and-finish contracts. Having multiple companies on the continent do this final stage of production could create thousands of jobs for African pharmacists, biologists and innovators, he said. Aspen, which has 23 manufacturing plants, is opening a sterilization facility in the southern South African city of Gkebela to fill more vials.
Nicolaou said African governments are actively working to ensure that domestically produced vaccines are widely distributed. And Gavi, the global vaccine alliance, is set to launch the African Vaccine Manufacturing Accelerator on June 20, which aims to raise up to $1 billion over the next decade to help sustainably grow Africa's manufacturing base.
“There's a risk in relying solely on Gavi, who may buy from Asia or somewhere cheaper,” he said, “but we're pretty confident that, at least for vaccines, we can be competitive on price and, with the additional incentives that Gavi gives us, we can go after Gavi markets on the continent.”