Organizations that purchase vaccines and other essential medicinal products have been urged to buy products locally made in developing countries to boost the sustainability of the vaccine production capacity of those nations.
Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta made the call on Sunday in an address during a ceremony to mark the opening of the 75th World Health Assembly in Geneva, Switzerland.
Kenyatta pointed out that the dynamics of the COVID-19 pandemic and the subsequent vaccine inequalities had exposed the over-reliance of developing nations on external markets, which adversely affected their ability to produce the required health products and technology.
“To support the sustainability of new manufacturing initiative, all stakeholders must come together to address the financing, coordinated technology transfer, including affirmative action, as well as market access for locally manufactured products,” Kenyatta said.
“Going forward, we would urge Gavi, the Global Fund, PEPFA and other major vaccine and other essential medicines purchasing organizations to lead the way in prioritizing procurement of these locally manufactured health products from the countries they serve most.”
“We call on WHO to promote the success of these manufacturing plants through supporting regulatory systems, strengthening the expeditious pre-qualification of these locally produced products ensuring market access and procurement for the finished products from these (mRNA technology transfer hub) spokes.”
Kenyatta’s statement comes about three months after the World Health Organization (WHO) announced the first six African countries, including Kenya, that will receive the technology needed to produce mRNA vaccines on the continent.
The global mRNA technology transfer hub was founded last year to support manufacturers in low and middle-income countries to produce their own vaccines, ensuring they have all the necessary operating procedures and know-how to manufacture mRNA vaccines at scale and according to international standards.
The African Union aims to increase production of all routine vaccines administered in Africa locally from just one percent to 60 percent by 2040.
French President Emmanuel Macron, who also spoke during the ceremony, supported Kenyatta’s call saying it was in the world’s common interest to buy locally and maintain production capacity at local level in all continents.
Macron said Europe had collected more than one billion euros to rollout production capacity for vaccines in all parts of the world and was working closely with the WHO to create technology transfer centers in Africa and other continents.
However, even with all this support, there are increasing concerns of the uptake of these products, particularly by the rest of the world, once manufacturing across the continent picks up.
Earlier this month, the WHO and its COVID-19 vaccine partner Gavi saying they had no immediate plans to buy shots manufactured by Aspen Pharmacare, a South African company, further hampering Africa’s efforts to grow its own vaccine production capacity.
Prior to that, Aspen’s CEO Stephen Saad cautioned that the company would be forced to re-purpose about half of its vaccine production capacity if orders did not increase.
Saad further warned that a persistent lack of demand would cast doubt over the viability of local production and leave the continent behind, yet again, in the next pandemic.
(Story compiled with some data from wire reports)