According to a 2024 study by the Africa CDC, the Clinton Health Access Initiative, and the Program for Appropriate Technology in Health, manufacturing vaccines in Africa faces two challenges.               

First, Africa does not produce enough of the substances that go into vaccines.    Second, because an arrangement already exists which seemingly meets Africa’s demand for vaccines, there is no guarantee that African countries will or could purchase African-made vaccines.

To realize universal immunization, the Gates Foundation led other philanthropists to create the Global Alliance for Vaccines and Immunization, GAVI in 2000.  GAVI secures long-term commitments to buy vaccines from low-income countries.  GAVI offers this stable and predictable market to manufacturers.  In return, the manufacturers lower the prices of vaccines to countries that are classified as low-income countries by the World Bank.  Currently, that means countries that have a gross national product per capital of less than US$1,820.  This arrangement has saved many lives.

But the COVID-19 crisis left no doubt that even with this arrangement, African countries are still be at the bottom of the waiting list whether they purchase vaccines directly from manufacturers or go through GAVI.  In a crisis, manufacturers serve their countries or regions first before serving Africa.    Hence, the only reliable way to ensure that Africa gets vaccines and other medical products in times of crisis is to expand production on the continent. 

Framework for Africa Pharma

Africa currently accounts for only 3 percent of global drug production; it imports more than 80 percent of its pharmaceutical needs.  To change this picture, African Union has set a goal of producing sixty percent of the continent’s vaccines on the continent by 2040.  The AU has tasked Africa Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Africa CDC.   

To create policy momentum, African Heads of States established the Partnership for African Vaccine Manufacturing Framework for Action in 2021.  It encourages African countries to use public-private partnerships, tax breaks, and funding from multilateral institutions to support African manufacturers.  

With the AU acting as a proxy for a single African government authority, Africa CDC has developed the Africa Medicines Authority.   When it is ratified, it will harmonize quality, safety, efficacy standards and approval procedures across the continent.   

According to Africa CDC, the continent has only 3,000 professionals in research and development, biomanufacturing, and regulation.  Africa CDC estimates that the continent needs about 12,000 professionals if it is to manufacture 60 percent of its vaccine needs locally. 

Therefore, Africa CDC has created the Regional Capability and Capacity Networks for training.  Institut Pasteur du Maroc, the Unified Procurement Authority in Egypt, the Africa Biomanufacturing Institute in Rwanda, the Institut Pasteur de Dakar, and Council for Scientific and Industrial Research in South Africa have been assigned the task of spearheading and perpetuating the training of an African pool of professionals.   As in India, it will probably take a generation to create such a pool.

To shape the African market for pharmaceutical products, Africa CDC has created a Pooled Procurement Mechanism to offer African manufacturers a reliable market.  In 2024, nine countries issued the Abidjan Declaration under which Côte d’Ivoire, Djibouti, Ghana, Mauritania, Benin, Congo, Nigeria, Sao Tome and Principe and Senegal willpay for immunization entirely out of their own budgets.   Thus, they will be free to purchase vaccines from all sources including from African manufacturers.   

To give African manufacturers access to capital, Africa CDC has created the African Vaccine Manufacturing Accelerator, AVMA, a financing initiative that will provide up to $1.2 billion over a decade.  This core funding will be supplemented by commitments for $3.5 billion from global donors and a pledge of $2 billion from Africa Export-Import Bank. 

To support Africa’s effort, in 2023 GAVI committed to provide up to US$ 1 billion over the next ten years to African manufacturers who secure WHO prequalification for GAVI-supported vaccines.  Those who leapfrog to use the latest technology such as mRNA or viral vector vaccines will receive up to US$25 million from GAVI.   Smaller payments will be given to WHO-approved African manufacturers who ‘fill and finish’ on the continent.   GAVI will also pay an ‘accelerator payment’ when an African manufacturer wins a UNICEF tender. 

This AU-led effort duplicates key features of India’s drive for a national pharmaceutical industry.  Now Africa needs a consistent and sustained unity of purpose to take actions such as India’s thirty-five year-long barring of the patents on drug and vaccine products.  This bold action bought India precious time.  The future of an African pharmaceutical industry rests on a similar unity of purpose.