Read the Conversation
Conversation highlights:
- Post-pandemic momentum: Africa’s vaccine manufacturing drive gained political and market support but risks fading amid global geopolitical distractions; Biovac’s focus is to keep it on the international agenda.
- Pipeline expansion: Biovac has four vaccines in development, OCV with IVI, IPV with Sanofi, meningitis with Eubiologics, and PCV-14 with Biological E, set for rollout between 2027 and 2028, including exports via Gavi and UNICEF.
- African vaccine target: The AU/CDC goal of 60% local vaccine production by 2040 is ambitious but realistic if current momentum, political will, market demand, regulatory readiness, local procurement, and tailored funding remain aligned.
- Continental collaboration: Regional coordination remains fragmented; continued leadership from the Africa CDC is needed to unify all countries around the need for the purchase of locally ( African) made vaccines .
- Next phase focus: Africa must progress from fill-and-finish to end-to-end vaccine development, prioritizing the creation of African-designed products rather than only producing for external companies.
EF: From your personal perspective and from Biovac, how do you assess 2025?
MM: Post-pandemic, there has been significant momentum towards building vaccine manufacturing capacity on the continent. That momentum started with political will and momentum from African countries seeking to establish and grow African vaccine manufacturing and then moved to the market shaping efforts, with players like Gavi and UNICEF developing instruments to support our efforts.
Since then, there have been two political distractions. One was the Russia-Ukraine conflict, which caught the attention of many European political leaders. The second, this year, is the change in the US administration. When geopolitics come up, people may get distracted and forget about vaccine manufacturing in Africa. As the momentum for African vaccine manufacturing is only at the beginning, we need to ensure that all stakeholders stay the course and support us in the long journey.
Fortunately, while some, like the US, may not be very supportive, most of the global political environment is still supportive of vaccine manufacturing in Africa. But we should not be complacent and think it will last forever. With the G20 also talking about local manufacturing, this agenda must continue. We are happy that the topic is still there, but it can easily slip off the radar, so the key for us is to make sure it stays on the radar of those who matter.
EF: Could you tell us about the three new vaccines by 2028?
MM: It is very exciting. In fact, we announced a fourth vaccine technology transfer in June. This is related to my earlier point about momentum. We can only strike deals and do tech transfers if the environment allows.
Last year, we signed an IPV vaccine agreement with Sanofi, and that tech transfer is going well. Before that, in 2022, we signed an oral vaccine tech transfer with IVI, based in South Korea. That project is to develop the vaccine, take it through clinical trials, and ultimately commercialize it. When licensed, it will be the first end-to-end vaccine made in Africa in over 50 years.
So, we signed the OCV tech transfer in 2022, we signed the IPV agreement with Sanofi last year, and we also signed a meningitis vaccine agreement with Eubiologics in South Korea last year. In June of this year, we announced that we had signed a PCV-14, a pneumococcal conjugate vaccine with 14 serotypes, with Biological E in India.. From 2027 through 2028, all of these tech transfers will start rolling out as we reach licensure. These vaccines are not only for South Africa but also for export markets, including Gavi, UNICEF, and the rest of the African continent.
We are very excited about what is coming, and these are the four projects we are working on. The oral cholera vaccine project is the only one that is fully end-to-end, which is rare on the continent, and it will be a flagship project.
EF: The African Union, along with the CDC, has an ambitious goal of producing 60% of vaccines on the continent by 2040. How do you assess this goal?
MM: Biovac fully embraces the ambition of reaching 60% by 2040. It is possible, but not likely. Despite the momentum, Africa is still producing less than 1% of vaccines because new players, including ourselves, do not yet have products on the market. Once we start getting to double digits, that is when we will have really moved the needle. The heavy lifting is what has to happen now, just to get from 1% to 10%. Once the infrastructure, regulatory systems, and products are in place, growth will compound more easily.
We need the current momentum not to wane. That momentum depends on a combination of factors: continued political will; continued market support from the biggest purchasers like Gavi and UNICEF; regulatory systems catching up; and African countries embracing and buying African-made vaccines. All of these elements have to work together in synchrony.
Another element I should mention is funding. But this funding needs to be designed for Africa. Too often, the funding we are offered is structured through a first-world lens, with loans or terms that do not fit our realities. We need financing tailored to African settings. For me, those five elements are key, and they all have to work continuously together if we are to reach that goal.
EF: Out of everything you are working on right now, what excites you the most? What stands out for you?
MM: What stands out is that, as we move through the chapters we discussed, the political will is there, we also have the market side covered, with UNICEF and Gavi, so that box is getting ticked too.
The areas that still need progress are the regulatory space, which really needs to move to support what we are doing, and the uptake of African-made vaccines by the countries themselves. That part needs to catch up more than the others. We are at a point where those conversations need to be started or accelerated. Some may have started, but they need to move faster.
EF: Is there anything we did not ask that you would like to add, or any final message you would like to share with our platform?
MM: What is important is going back to the theme of end-to-end vaccine manufacture. There is a lot of fill-and-finish happening, but we need to focus much more on true end-to-end production in the next phase.
Within that, we also need to look at product development. How to develop products on the continent? Right now, much of the manufacturing is for other companies’ products. The conversation needs to shift toward how we can manufacture our own African-made products. That is where the focus should move in the coming years.
