40 Million to Manufacture Vaccines in Africa.

A Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation today announced an investment of 40 million dollars (38 million euros) to help African manufacturers produce new messenger RNA vaccines on the continent, which is hampered in access to Covid-19 vaccines.

While it could still be at least another three years before any of the vaccines are approved and brought to market, the foundation said its investment in messenger RNA (mRNA) “marks an important step forward in improving vaccine equity".

“Whether it is local diseases in Africa, such as Rift Valley fever, or global diseases, such as tuberculosis, mRNA appears to be a very promising approach.”

Bill Gates declared to the agency Associated Press on Sunday, after visiting one of the facilities involved, the Pasteur Institute, in Dakar, Senegal.

“This allows us to give Africa capabilities to develop these vaccines, which can later be expanded”, explained Bill Gates.

The Donation Announcement

The announcement was made at the opening of the Foundation's annual three-day event, the “Grand Challenges“, which brings together scientists and public health researchers from around the world.

The Pasteur Institute, together with the South African company Biovac, will use an mRNA research and manufacturing platform, which was developed by Quantoom Biosciences in Belgium.

The two vaccine manufacturers based in Africa will each receive five million dollars (about 4,7 million euros) in funding from the foundation, while another 10 million dollars (about 9,5 million euros) will be earmarked to other companies that have not yet been named. The remaining 20 million dollars (around 19 million euros) will be allocated to Quantoom “pto advance technology and reduce costs".

mRNA vaccine technology emerged with the production of Covid-19 vaccines manufactured by Pfizer and Moderna. The messenger RNA approach starts with a fragment of genetic code that contains instructions for making proteins. And by choosing the right viral protein to target, the body becomes a “mini vaccine factory".

These Covid-19 mRNA vaccines quickly passed through the regulatory process and received emergency use authorization. New vaccines under development in Africa face a much longer development timeframe – three to seven years.

The executive director of the Pasteur Institute, Amadou Sall, said the agreement will help develop vaccine self-sufficiency in Africa.

Develop Autonomy in Vaccines

The institute has been producing vaccines against yellow fever since the 1930s and now hopes that mRNA technology can be used to produce vaccines against endemic diseases on the continent, such as Lassa fever, Rift Valley fever and Crimea-Congo hemorrhagic disease.

“What we want is that the next time there is a pandemic – we hope it doesn’t happen soon – Africa will be able to make its own vaccine, contribute to development and ensure that we protect the population”

“What happened with Covid-19 must not happen again, in the sense that Africans must be vaccinated for the sake of equity”. Sall explained.

The executive director of Quantoom Biosciences, José Castillo, said that mRNA technologies enable low- and middle-income countries to “become autonomous in terms of research and development“. The platform only needs 350 square meters of space to have a manufacturing unit capable of producing tens of millions of doses.

 “Many people in many countries did not have the necessary access to be vaccinated in time” during the covid-19 pandemic, so we think this technology will have a tremendous impact in terms of autonomy through regional manufacturing”, he concluded.

With 8,3 billion dollars (about 7,9 billion euros) donated in 2023, the Gates Foundation is the largest private philanthropic.

Conclusion

The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation continues to demonstrate its commitment to promoting global equity in access to vaccines by announcing a significant investment of $40 million to boost the production of messenger RNA (mRNA) vaccines in Africa.

Although the development of these vaccines may still take some years, this investment marks an important step in the quest for health self-sufficiency in the region, allowing Africa to produce its own vaccines and contribute to protecting its population against endemic diseases and future pandemics.

Furthermore, the strategic choice of mRNA as a promising technological platform reflects the innovation that has been seen in Pfizer and Moderna's COVID-19 vaccines. With this initiative, the Foundation is helping pave the way to a safer and more equitable global health future.

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Picture: © DR