PARIS: World leaders, health groups and pharmaceutical firms announced $1.2 billion in funding at a summit Thursday to produce vaccines in Africa, which is facing numerous health crises including rising cholera outbreaks.
The African Vaccine Manufacturing Accelerator “will be an essential step towards a genuine African vaccine market,” French President Emmanuel Macron said at the opening of the summit in the capital Paris.
Three quarters of the funding will come from Europe, Macron told the summit, which was also attended by leaders from Botswana, Rwanda, Senegal, Ghana, as well as visiting ministers, health groups and pharmaceutical firms. Germany will contribute $318 million to the scheme, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz said in a video message.
France put in $100 million and the UK $60 million, while other donors include the United States, Canada, Norway, Japan and the Gates Foundation.
The scheme “could become a catalyst for promoting the pharmaceutical industry in Africa and fostering collaboration between member states”, African Union commission chairman Moussa Faki Mahamat told the summit. Africa imports “99 percent of its vaccines at an exorbitant cost”, he added.
The Covid-19 pandemic shone a light on the unequal global distribution of vaccines, as wealthy countries home to big pharma firms snapped up most doses, leaving Africa far behind.
The new scheme aims to move vaccine production to Africa to give the continent more sovereignty — and avoid history being repeated.
“When the next pandemic hits, even if our leaders in the rich Western countries are angels, the pressure to hold on to your own vaccines, for your own people, is always going to be irresistible,” British Foreign Secretary David Cameron told the summit.
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