Regional vaccine and drug production is coming. Can it survive?

The push for regional manufacturing of vaccines, medicines, and health products is one of the more visible legacies of the COVID-19 pandemic. As their regions faced delays in access to vaccines during the pandemic, with limited capacity to produce their own, officials across the global south began setting up policies and sourcing funds to ensure they would not face the same inequities again.

In sub-Saharan Africa, for instance, three manufacturers should soon be in a position to manufacture vaccines at scale within the next five years, the Africa Centre for Disease Control and Prevention’s Dr. Abebe Genetu Bayih told attendees at this year’s World Health Summit in Berlin. But as these regions inch closer to securing production capacity, Abebe and other officials are now busy ensuring that these new facilities will actually be able to sustain themselves once they launch.

“We need to make sure these manufacturers really cross the finish line,” Abebe explained during a panel on building a sustainable ecosystem for production of medicines, vaccines, and other products. “To really access international markets and supply Africa and the rest of the world with quality and efficacious vaccines.”