Senegal is building a large “vaccinopoly” while South Africa faces cheaper competition

France hosted the Global Forum for Vaccine Sovereignty and Innovation in Africa on Thursday June 20. The objective is to allow the continent to have more vaccines, but it is not starting from scratch since Senegal already produces vaccines and South Africa has ambitions for large laboratory projects.

Build a “African vaccine market”, this is the ambition displayed by President Emmanuel Macron on June 20, during the Global Forum for Vaccine Sovereignty and Innovation. In his speech, he mentioned South Africa where France supports several laboratories, while Senegal, whose President Bassirou Diomaye Faye was present at the summit, is a pioneer in the manufacture of vaccines.

A large “vaccinopoly” in Senegal

The Pasteur Institute in Dakar has been producing the yellow fever vaccine since 1937, that’s even where it was discovered. It is now one of four producers of this vaccine approved by the WHO in the world, the only one in Africa, but it is on this continent that the majority of the 200,000 annual cases are detected.

The country intends to accelerate the pace, since a large “vaccinopole” is emerging from the ground in the new town of Diamniadio, 70 kilometers from Dakar. It should first make it possible to increase Senegalese production of the yellow fever vaccine, going from 5 million annual doses to 15 or even 30 million according to long-term estimates.

Other vaccines could be produced on site, such as that against measles and rubella, or that against cholera. This plant was to be commissioned in 2024, but the Pasteur Institute did not provide further details on the timetable.

The Senegalese Minister of Health, Dr. Ibrahima Sy, explained that these funds mobilized by Gavi, the international organization created to ensure better access to vaccines for children living in the poorest countries, will “help a country like Senegal have access to many types of vaccines, especially for children.”

He believes that this will reduce health spending, recalling that when the health system cannot offer quality care, vaccination is even more necessary to have fewer patients to care for.

President Bassirou Diomaye Faye recalled that investing in the production of vaccines on the continent is necessary, because it still remains largely dependent on the rest of the world to receive the necessary doses given that the vaccine industry is currently only providing 0.25% of global supply according to him.

While there is more and more talk of rethinking the partnership between France and its former colonies, including Senegal, in the field of vaccination, collaboration seems to be in good shape and it is an area in which the countries have been collaborating for a long time. .

Created by a French researcher in 1896, the Pasteur Institute in Dakar is now a Senegalese foundation which is part of the global Pasteur network. Among its partners, we find the French Development Agency, which is also one of the financiers of the future “vaccinopole”to the tune of 6.5 million euros.

The two presidents, Bassirou Diomaye Faye and Emmanuel Macron met for the first time on June 20, on the sidelines of the summit in Paris and in their joint press release, they expressed a common desire to give new impetus to the partnership between the two countries , based on mutual respect. They discussed joint cooperation projects to encourage Senegal’s sovereignty in areas such as agriculture, professional training and therefore, local production of vaccines.

In South Africa, France supports several laboratories

In Cape Town, the Afrigen laboratory is continuing the development of a messenger RNA vaccine for low-income countries. The idea is to create a vaccine formula that can be transferred to other countries so that they can produce doses locally and at low cost. Attention is not only focused on Covid-19, but on other viruses and diseases such as HIV, dengue or tuberculosis. France is also a financial partner in this project.

However, “the African vaccine market” desired by Emmanuel Macron comes up against a demand, which is not strong enough. Few buyers are rushing to acquire African vaccines according to Stavris Nicolaou, representative of the South African pharmaceutical company, Aspen. “The reality is that we are in roughly the same situation as three years ago. The supply agencies do not yet get their supplies from African producers.”

One of the glaring examples of this problem is that the South African government preferred to obtain pneumococcal vaccines from an Indian laboratory, rather than purchasing vaccines from the semi-public South African laboratory, Biovac. Indian doses being three times cheaper.

Vaccine independence in Africa is still in its infancy, as evidenced by the ongoing monkeypox epidemic in South Africa. 13 cases have been recorded and two people have died, but the country has neither the treatments nor the vaccines, which are quite rare on a global scale. The stocks being in the Northern countries, the Ministry of Health is therefore obliged to call on these countries for donations.