Vaccine manufacturing: What Africa must do

Africa is home to over a billion people, but by 2022, it had produced less than one percent of the world’s vaccines.

This gap leaves the continent vulnerable to outbreaks of infectious diseases and dependent on vaccine imports. The Covid-19 pandemic exposed this fragility and the inequity of the global health system, leading to a growing demand for more local vaccine manufacturing in Africa.

Data from the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (Africa CDC) shows that the continent imports 99 percent of its vaccine despite having a consumption rate of 25 percent globally.

Much effort must be made to reduce this overdependence on external vaccine sources. One solution is increasing the local production of vaccines across the continent, which will enhance Africa’s ability to respond effectively and equitably to health emergencies while also creating jobs and fostering innovation.

In 2021, the African Union launched the Partnership for African Vaccine Manufacturing (PAVM) initiative to increase the local production of vaccines to cover 60 percent of the continent’s demand by 2040.

Read: What Africa needs to make its own vaccines

However, more needs to be done to address challenges such as inadequate infrastructure, technology, financing, and market access.

The most notable barrier, however, is the critical shortage of skilled and qualified human resources for vaccine manufacturing. Without a robust workforce, Africa’s ability to develop, produce, and distribute quality vaccines that meet international standards and local needs is minimal.

Workforce development is critical to building a sustainable and competitive vaccine industry in Africa. It involves training and empowering local scientists, engineers, technicians, managers, regulators, and entrepreneurs, who can design, produce, distribute, and monitor the immunity givers and boosters.

It can be argued that there is a lack of a coordinated and strategic approach to identify and prioritise the skills and competencies needed to manufacture vaccines in Africa.

And with the limited availability and accessibility of quality education and training programmes that are relevant, affordable, and accredited, nothing much can be achieved.

There is also the problem of weak linkages and collaboration among stakeholders, including academia, industry, government, and civil society, to align the supply and demand of skills and competencies.

As such, there is an urgent need for a holistic and systemic approach involving multiple stakeholders and leveraging existing resources and best practices.

A comprehensive framework and roadmap for workforce development that highlights different actors’ vision, goals, objectives, indicators, roles, and responsibilities must be developed.

Read: ADESINA: Africa must industrialise to improve global share of trade

Furthermore, it is essential to set up regional centres of excellence and vaccine manufacturing hubs that can provide training, mentorship, research, innovation, and networking opportunities for professionals in the field of vaccines.

It is also important to create incentives and mechanisms for attracting, keeping, motivating, and rewarding the workforce for vaccine manufacturing in Africa. This includes the provision of competitive salaries, career progression paths, recognition schemes, scholarships, fellowships, and grants, among others.

However, strengthening the collaboration and coordination among stakeholders across the vaccine value chain will ensure a sustainable approach. This will equally ensure alignment of skills and competencies with market needs and standards.

Similarly, relying on an industry based on fill-and-finish operations involving the final steps of drug production, such as filling vials and packaging, will not bring long-term strategic or economic benefits to Africa.

Therefore, it is important to invest in developing end-to-end manufacturing capabilities, which cover the entire process of making pharmaceutical products, from synthesising the active pharmaceutical ingredient (API) to packaging and distributing the final product.

To achieve this goal, African scientists need more opportunities and resources to create their own intellectual property for developing APIs, which are the key components of any drug. This way, they can address the huge gap in end-to-end manufacturing and contribute to the health and development of the continent.

Experts also stress that creating a conducive environment for private sector investment in vaccine manufacturing will help Africa attain economic viability for its vaccine producers and sufficient vaccine supply for its people.

Thankfully, several initiatives currently underway aim to support workforce development in Africa. A good example is the collaboration between Africa CDC and the Mastercard Foundation, which launched a $1.5 billion initiative to expand access to Covid-19 vaccines and boost the continent’s health security.

As part of this initiative, Africa CDC will support workforce development programmes to allow up to 30 million young people, especially young women, to access fulfilling job opportunities in the health sector by 2030.

These programmes include scholarships, fellowships, internships, and mentorships for young Africans pursuing careers in vaccine manufacturing and other health-related fields.

Read: OIGARA: 2022 is the year to beat Covid-19 and steer economies to recovery

Such an initiative proves Africa’s growing momentum and commitment to foster workforce development for vaccine manufacturing in the continent. However, it is important to remember that more concerted efforts are needed to ensure that these programmes are sustainable, scalable, and responsive to the specific needs and priorities of each African country or region.

Better yet, workforce development and implementation should be aligned with the regional and continental frameworks such as the African Vaccine Manufacturing Initiative (AVMI) and the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA), as well as other aspects of vaccine manufacturing, including infrastructure development, technology transfer, market access, and regulatory harmonisation.

In so doing, Africa can build a robust and resilient vaccine industry that can protect its people from current and future health threats.

Musundi is a development communication expert based in Nairobi, Kenya.