There’s huge interest in building vaccine manufacturing capacity on the African continent, especially in the wake of the acute phase of the COVID-19 pandemic, when many African countries struggled to secure vaccine doses after high-income countries hoarded them. But several health leaders are now expressing concern the vaccine manufacturing sector could become too crowded.
Dr. Ahmed Ogwell Ouma, acting director of the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention, said in a press conference this week that there has been a little too much interest in this work — and now part of what they’re doing at Africa CDC is discouraging countries from launching so many initiatives that they oversaturate the market.
“It is very important that we don’t have too many manufacturing facilities for vaccines … because if you have a glut in the production of vaccines, then you end up with a very unproductive investment,” he said, adding that there are other priorities such as diagnostics and therapeutics manufacturing that countries can focus on. He also encouraged investments in the manufacture of cholera vaccines on the continent to prevent future shortages.
About the author
Jenny Lei Ravelo@JennyLeiRavelo
Jenny Lei Ravelo is a Devex Senior Reporter based in Manila. She covers global health, with a particular focus on the World Health Organization, and other development and humanitarian aid trends in Asia Pacific. Prior to Devex, she wrote for ABS-CBN, one of the largest broadcasting networks in the Philippines, and was a copy editor for various international scientific journals. She received her journalism degree from the University of Santo Tomas.
