Making Africa healthier: global forum launches $1.2bn initiative to boost local vaccine production

World leaders, health groups, and pharmaceutical firms have announced an African Vaccine Manufacturing Accelerator initiative to the tune of $1.2 billion that will incentivize and offset start-up costs for vaccine manufacturing in the continent.

The initiative is “an essential step towards a genuine African vaccine market,” French President Emmanuel Macron said at the opening of the Global Forum for Vaccine Sovereignty and Innovation in Paris on Thursday June 20. The summit has brought together African heads of state, health ministers from various regions, senior officials from the World Health Organization (WHO), and business executives from the pharmaceutical industry. The $1.2 billion in funding will help produce vaccines in Africa, which is facing numerous health crises including rising cholera outbreaks, as well as inequalities in access to inoculation that were exposed after the Covid-19 pandemic.

The funding, raised by France, in collaboration with the African Union (AU) and the Vaccine Alliance (GAVI), provides financial incentives to speed up local vaccine manufacturing in the continent. Africa imports “99% of its vaccines at an exorbitant cost”, AU Commission chief Moussa Faki Mahamat said, as he welcomed the initiative that it “could become a catalyst for promoting the pharmaceutical industry in Africa and fostering collaboration between member states”. The European Union said the bloc and its member states will contribute $800 million, the UK $60 million to the vaccine manufacturing scheme, while other donors include the United States, Canada, Norway, Japan and the Gates Foundation.