Advancing Vaccinology Capacity: Education and Efforts in Vaccine Development and Manufacturing across Africa

Abstract

Africa, home to the world's second-largest population of approximately 1.3 billion, grapples with significant challenges in meeting its medical needs, particularly in accessing quality healthcare services and products. The continent faces a continuous onslaught of emerging infectious diseases, exacerbating the strain on its already fragile public health infrastructure. The COVID-19 crisis highlighted the urgency to build local vaccine production capacity and strengthen the health infrastructure in general. The risks associated with a heavy reliance on imported vaccines were exposed during the COVID-19 pandemic, necessitating the need to nurture and strengthen the local manufacturing of vaccines and therapeutic biologics. Various initiatives addressing training, manufacturing, and regulatory affairs are underway, and these require increasing dedicated and purposeful financial investment. Building vaccine manufacturing capacity requires substantial investment in training and infrastructure. This manuscript examines the current state of education in vaccinology and related sciences in Africa. It also provides an overview of the continent's efforts to address educational needs in vaccine development and manufacturing. Additionally, it evaluates the initiatives aimed at strengthening vaccine education and literacy, highlighting successful approaches and ongoing challenges. By assessing the progress made and identifying the remaining obstacles, this review offers insights into how Africa can enhance its vaccine manufacturing capacity to respond to vaccine-preventable disease challenges.

Keywords: African countries; education; vaccine manufacturing; vaccinology.

Figure 1

Global vaccine production capacity during the COVID-19 pandemic: pre-pandemic comparison and African representation [103].

Figure 2

Examples of funding allocated to vaccine production by different African vaccine producers. Institut Pasteur de Dakar will invest up to USD 200 million [106]. Biovac will allocate up to USD 150 million [107]. BioNTech will utilize up to USD145 million from CEPI [108]. Afrigen Biologics will use USD 9 million [109]. Kenya BioVax Institute will invest up to USD 120 million [110]. ShieldVax plans to invest USD 70 million in vaccine production [111]. In 2022, VACSERA invested USD 15 million [112]. Gennecs will invest up to USD 150 million in vaccine production [113]. Aspen Pharmacare is set to invest USD 30 million in producing routine and outbreak vaccines [114]. SESYO Pharmatech intend to invest USD 562 million in vaccine manufacturing [115].

Figure 3

Geographical distribution of novel progress in vaccine development in Africa during the COVID-19 era (MoU: Memorandum of Understanding).

Figure 4

African vaccine production capacity: ambition and progress toward self-sufficiency. Information about the current and projected vaccine production capacities of various African vaccine producers were retrieved from different journals and press releases. BioNTech is expected to start producing 150 million doses annually across all of its facilities [125]. Afrigen Biologics is projected to produce 50 million doses annually [109]. VACSERA initially produced 15 million doses in its first batch and aims to produce 222 million doses annually [126]. Institut Pasteur de Dakar started with an initial production of 8 million doses [106] and plans to scale up to 300 million doses annually [127]. The Biovac Institute, which initially produced 150 million doses, is projected to increase its production to 560 million doses annually [128]. Kenya BioVax Institute estimating a production of USD 50 million doses annually [129]. Gennecs aims to produce 300 million vaccines per year [113]. SENSYO Pharmatech will manufacture 116 million vaccine units in 2024 [115].