Boost for Africa’s COVID-19 vaccine initiative

In an effort towards building Africa’s vaccine manufacturing capacity and finding solution to the COVID-19 pandemic on the continent, it is worthy of note that Nigeria’s vaccinologist, Dr. Simon Agwale, was recently unanimously elected to lead the COVID-19 vaccine task team of the African Vaccine Manufacturing Initiative (AVMI).

AVMI, through advocacy, aims to manufacture preventive and therapeutic vaccines and other biological products against diseases of public health importance; encourage partnerships between African vaccine manufacturers and other stakeholders; attract and secure skills and resources for establishing vaccine manufacturing capacity in Africa; and promote scientific and technical capacity building of Africa’s vaccine manufacturers.

The meeting of AVMI resolved that vaccine access remained a critical risk for African countries, adding that the concept of “vaccine nationalism” would be kicked “where countries look after themselves first before making vaccine doses available to other countries.” The resolution also includes setting up a dedicated fund to support African vaccine manufacturing capacity on the continent, with a “flexible procedure to produce vaccines other than COVID-19 vaccines.”

This is timely because according to an article by Health Times, “In much of the global COVID-19 conversation, Africa is barely mentioned. But the risks which the COVID-19 crisis brings are even greater in Africa, and those risks will be compounded if Africa is marginalised in the global response.”

Dr. Agwale, a researcher at the National Institute for Pharmaceutical Research and Development (NIPRD) and founder/CEO of Innovative Biotech, Keffi, Nasarawa State, has been at the forefront of shaping the future direction of vaccine development worldwide.