The GAVI alliance, which works to provide vaccines to low-income countries, wants to finance the development of production capacities in Africa, after the harsh lessons of the Covid-19 pandemic.
GAVI and the World Health Organization (WHO) - which co-lead the Covax system for distributing anti-Covid vaccines alongside the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations (CEPI) - have long lamented the lack of solidarity regarding access to these products in poor countries.
A "limiting factor" in the equitable distribution of vaccines is the lack of geographical diversity in production capacities, and on this point Africa "is the continent that is really left behind ," said Dr. Seth Berkley , executive director of GAVI, at a press conference.
The pandemic has shown the need to have "a look at the resilience of regional vaccine production so that each region can at least aspire to have the vaccine if, as we have seen, there are restrictions and limitations on exports," added Marie-Ange Saraka-Yao , GAVI's Executive Director for Resource Mobilization, Private Sector Partnerships and Innovative Finance .
Regional manufacturing
Covax, created even before the appearance of anti-Covid vaccines, was a victim, among other things, of the strategy of rich countries that hoarded as many doses as possible, but also of a long export ban from India , where its main source of supply was located.
This is why the GAVI Board has just approved a plan to encourage regional vaccine manufacturing , particularly in Africa, and is considering creating a financial instrument – a market guarantee – to support production in Africa.
"The idea is really to help regional production reach a certain level for immunization in general, not just for pandemics, on the contrary, because a regional system cannot be effective and profitable if it does not cover routine immunization ," Ms. Saraka-Yao explained to AFP.
"First, we need to increase [capacity] for routine immunization, since we need producers for yellow fever, for malaria, for cholera... All of these are antigens for which we do not have enough producers , for example," she said.
Technology transfer
The objective is to be able to rapidly increase these production capacities in the event of a new pandemic, in particular by facilitating technology transfers .
Despite facing its share of setbacks, COVAX has managed to deliver nearly two billion doses . Eight countries still have a vaccination rate below 10% , Dr. Berkley indicated.
These countries are Haiti, Madagascar , Papua New Guinea, Senegal , Yemen, Cameroon , the Democratic Republic of Congo , the Central African Republic , and Burundi . The latter, however, only joined COVAX last week, the head of GAVI noted with satisfaction.
The two GAVI leaders acknowledged that COVAX had not been perfect, but they emphasized its adaptability. Ms. Saraka-Yao also stressed the importance of having an Asset Market Guarantee (AMC) like the one COVAX provided in the event of a future pandemic.
"What did AMC Covax do? It guaranteed demand. This is important because by their very nature epidemics are volatile, so a producer - even if it has the capacity - will not want to invest" without a market guarantee, she explained.
According to her, it is therefore important, on the one hand, to encourage regional supply of vaccines and capacity, so as to be able to cover routine immunization needs and additional needs in the event of an epidemic , but also to guarantee to producers that there is a guarantee on the demand side.
