The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation said on Monday it is funding two African vaccine manufacturers and a Belgian biotechnology company with $40 million to help them to produce new mRNA vaccines.
Senegalese laboratory Institut Pasteur de Dakar and the South African-based biopharmaceutical company Biovac are among these companies.
Each manufacturer to receive $5m to buy mRNA vaccine research and manufacturing technology developed by the Belgian company Quantoom Biosciences.
The Belgian company has been awarded $20m to advance its vaccine research and manufacturing technology, which could help it to further lower the cost of producing mRNA vaccines.
The remaining $10m is expected to go to other vaccine manufacturers.
Under the funding deal, the organisations will conduct research and development of vaccines for global diseases and those that are prevalent in Africa.
Head of Institut Pasteur Dr Amadou Sall has said that the funding is “an important and necessary step towards vaccine self-reliance in the region”.
“What we want is next time there is a pandemic — we hope it won’t happen soon — Africa would be able to make its own vaccine, to contribute to the development, and make sure that we protect the population,” is quoted by AP saying.
“What happened with COVID should never happen again in the sense that Africans should get vaccinated as a matter of equity.”
Jose Castillo, chief executive officer of Quantoom Biosciences, said the mRNA technologies allow low- and middle-income countries “to become autonomous in terms of research and development.” The platform only needs 350 square meters (3,800 square feet) of space to have a manufacturing facility capable of making tens of millions of doses.
“So we think that this technology will have a tremendous impact in terms of autonomy through regional manufacturing,” he said.
