Ramping up vaccine manufacturing in Africa

PAVM has set a target whereby local manufacturers supply 60% of the vaccines needed on the African continent by 2024. In response, Wellcome, Biovac and BCG have worked together on a new report, which focuses on the challenges manufacturers face and the areas where the most support is needed to expand vaccine access.

The pandemic has highlighted the urgent need for greater vaccine manufacturing capacity and capabilities across the African continent. Yet, the continent supplies less than 1% of its vaccine doses. Much remains to be done to fulfil the plan of the Partnerships for African Vaccine Manufacturing (PAVM): for African manufacturers to supply 60% of the vaccines needed by the continent by 2040.

A wide group of industry stakeholders were consulted by Wellcome, Biovac and Boston Consulting Group (BCG) while developing a report titled Scaling Up African Vaccine Manufacturing Capacity, around the challenges that manufacturers face and where they need the greatest support to ramp up African vaccine manufacturing. 

“There has been unprecedented global and continental mobilisation to improve Africa’s access to vaccines and bolster the African vaccine-manufacturing ecosystem in the last 24 months,” says Jan Gildemeister, Managing Director and Senior Partner at BCG, Johannesburg and a co-author of the report. 

Enabling economic viability

However, the African vaccine-manufacturing industry today is still in its very early stages. Most African manufacturers have made it clear they are not profitable yet, and remain at risk of what Gavi has called ‘the potential high-price and low-volume trap’, where they can’t secure the necessary funding and volumes to manufacture at scale, leading to higher prices and lower volumes.

To scale vaccine manufacturing in Africa effectively and make it economically viable, African manufacturers need to overcome three risks:

1. business model sustainability risk
2. strategic risk around producing the right vaccines in the right volumes
3. support risk as the attention brought about by the pandemic recedes.

“Concrete measures need to be put in place to address the challenges holding African manufacturers back and create the conditions for a sustainable ecosystem,” says Patrick Tippoo, Head of Science and Innovation at Biovac. “Creating a robust business model, identifying strategic priorities and enabling sufficient support structures requires collective action and commitment from all stakeholders to expand vaccine access and safeguard the future of the African vaccine manufacturing sector.”

Building business model sustainability

All stakeholders have a role to play. This is outlined in several steps that must be taken to create more robust business models: 

1. Governments can support manufacturers in accessing funding and securing technology transfers through Advance Purchase Agreements (APAs). APAs that help manufacturers gain traction in the local market are currently insufficient, indicating that going forward they need to be at the regional or continental level.
2. Procurement mechanisms need to be reviewed to facilitate market access and offer predictable demand. Suggestions include Gavi introducing a minimum procurement share of African supply and the introduction of a continental pooling arrangement on vaccine demand to expand market volumes.
3. Clarity is needed on financial support mechanisms to subsidise vaccine manufacturing in the medium-term and improve price competitiveness – whether the mechanism is funding of the investments or operations, or agreements to pay a price premium per dose, and also what the source of the funding is: governments, donors, or a mixture of both.
4. Information-sharing is critical, so PAVM or other continental organisations should define and launch coordination mechanisms to help manufacturers to make business decisions, and help donors to identify where to direct their support.

Identifying and guiding on strategic priorities 

Many African manufacturers aren’t clear on which products out of the 22 on the PAVM’s list should take strategic priority. Industry stakeholders need to provide specific guidance and identify supply-constrained products with less complex end-to-end manufacturing processes so that manufacturers can prioritise their efforts. The report proposes six short-to mid-term priority products for manufacturing. Stakeholders should also identify more complex supply-constrained products so manufacturers can start building fill and finish (F&F) capabilities.

Supplying sufficient and sustained support

Deborah King, Vaccines Research Lead at Wellcome, indicates that the assessment revealed that manufacturers are looking for support from donors, in particular for the following three priorities: 

1. Access to finance: Donors can offer tailored funding with lower interest rates and longer payback periods.
2. Talent and training: To help manufacturing employees gain practical experience, donors should also fund secondments with experienced manufacturers and bring global experts to work in local manufacturing sites.
3. Technology transfers: Donors can collaborate with African manufacturers, as well as encourage and fund technology transfers with global research institutions, to support capacity building that will attract private partners.  

“While there is no silver bullet, the mood among stakeholders is one of optimism. Collective current and forthcoming efforts to scale up Africa’s vaccine-manufacturing capacity can improve vaccine-supply security, help to better tackle endemic diseases, and contribute to global pandemic preparedness while also boosting the continent’s socio-economic development,” says Arthur Salaün, Principal at BCG.

For more information and to download a copy of the report, click here.