A Sudanese nurse prepares a dose of vaccine against measles and rubella, January 22, 2024 in Gedaref, Sudan (AFP/Archives/-)
Building “an African vaccine market”: more than a billion dollars were announced Thursday in Paris during a world summit to accelerate the production of vaccines in Africa, particularly against cholera which is prevalent in “half” of this region. part of the world.
This fund with 1.2 billion dollars (1.1 billion euros) “will be an essential building block for building this true African vaccine market,” declared French President Emmanuel Macron, host of the summit.
The European Commission provides “three-quarters of this financing”, underlined Mr. Macron.
Co-organized by France, the African Union and the Vaccine Alliance, the summit attracted the participation of four African leaders (Botswana, Rwanda, Senegal, Ghana), around thirty ministers, representatives of organizations international companies, pharmaceutical companies, research institutes and banks.
Contributions to this new fund – entitled African Vaccine Manufacturing Accelerator (AVMA) – have been announced by Germany (318 million dollars), France (100 M USD), the United Kingdom (60 M USD), alongside other funders (United States, Canada, Norway, Japan and the Bill Gates Foundation).
This system “could become a catalyst for promoting the pharmaceutical industry in Africa and encouraging collaboration between member states”, said the president of the African Union Commission, Moussa Faki Mahamat, while “the continent continues to import 99% of its vaccines at exorbitant costs.
The inequality of access to vaccines was highlighted by the Covid pandemic four years ago and localized production around the world is seen as a response to future pandemics.
The African Union has set the objective of covering 60% of vaccine needs through local production by 2040.
The Vaccine Alliance (Gavi), an international organization based in Geneva which helps low-income countries introduce vaccines against 20 diseases and strengthen their health sovereignty, used the summit to launch its campaign to replenish its resources.
It has immunized a billion children since 2000 but “there are still millions of children who have never been vaccinated against a single disease” and “hundreds of millions of others need access to more large number of vaccines”, pleaded the president of the Alliance, José Manuel Barroso.
– “Send cholera to the past” –
Of the 9 billion dollars requested to finance its vaccination programs over 2026-2030, the Alliance was able to raise “2.4 billion dollars” from donors, including 1.58 billion from the United States, announced its director Sania Nishtar during a press conference.
Vaccination against cholera, January 29, 2024 in Harare, Zimbabwe (AFP/Archives/Jekesai NJIKIZANA)
The Alliance hopes to raise additional funds to accelerate the introduction of new vaccines and expand coverage of routine vaccines.
Emphasis will be placed in particular on vaccines against cholera to respond to shortages.
For the moment, the South Korean laboratory EuBiologics is the only supplier of oral vaccines against cholera. The French group Sanofi stopped production of its vaccine at the end of 2022, a decision taken in 2020.
Cholera is “the most glaring, the most cruel illustration of the necessity of the effort that we are making,” declared Mr. Macron, the president, while a new epidemic affects “half of the ‘Africa”.
Cholera has already killed 134 people in the Comoros since February and has spread to the neighboring French department of Mayotte, sparking criticism of French management of the epidemic.
Calling to “return cholera to the past”, the French president announced that a “production line for vaccines against cholera could be deployed in Africa” by the South African laboratory Biovac whose investments will be supported on a “priority basis” by the new financial mechanism.
Thanks to these financial contributions, “we are sure that within two years, Africa will produce the vaccine against cholera,” said Jean Kaseya, director general of the Africa Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
© 2024 AFP
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