Eyes were on Paris with the official launch of the African Vaccine Manufacturing Accelerator (AVMA) on Thursday. The EU is contributing €750 million to the accelerator, while the US is pledging $1.58 billion over the next five years to Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance.
Work on AVMA was first announced late last year by Gavi and Africa’s CDC, with the goal to make at least 800 million vaccine doses that feature three vaccine platforms in Africa by at least four different African manufacturers by 2035.
The accelerator aims to support Africa’s Platform for Harmonized African Health Products Manufacturing (PHAHM) to produce 60% of vaccines locally by 2040. Gavi has budgeted $1 billion over the next 10 years to meet vaccine supply demand in the region, Africa’s CDC said Thursday.
AVMA will hand out payments to local manufacturers to offset costs, including a milestone payment once a vaccine manufacturer secures WHO prequalification. Roughly €1 billion ($1.1 billion) will be available for manufacturers.
To support the goal of producing more vaccines in Africa, Sanofi and Cape Town-based Biovac also announced Thursday that they are partnering to make inactive polio vaccines for more than 40 African countries. According to Biovac, this collaboration makes it the first African manufacturer of this vaccine.
Also on Thursday, Africa’s CDC renewed its partnership with Afreximbank, which has committed a $2 billion facility to the so-called Africa Health Security Investment Plan to improve manufacturing in the continent.
Separately, Gavi unveiled Thursday that a new investment program, to be launched between 2026 and 2030, will look to raise $9 billion to help the alliance immunize at least 500 million more children in lower-income countries. The alliance is seeking funding from donor governments, private companies and individuals.