Professor Prakash Jeena says South Africa is not just a follower, but a leader in the scientific world. This was shown amid the Covid-19 pandemic when South Africa was the first to identify the Omicron variant. Picture: Timothy Bernard African News Agency (ANA)
For South Africa and the whole of Africa to fully break the cycle of vaccine dependency, it will have to start developing its own vaccines through product development partnerships, the Pfizer and Biovac virtual media round-table heard on Wednesday.
Professor Prakash Jeena, head of the paediatric intensive care unit (PICU) and pulmonology at the University of KwaZulu-Natal, said South Africa was not just a follower, but a leader in the scientific world. This was shown amid the Covid-19 pandemic when South Africa was the first to identify the Omicron variant.
“Now can you imagine if we had a head start with a fully functional production service. We would be calling the shots in producing these vaccines much earlier than the US or European countries,” Jeena said.
Local scientists were on the cutting edge and needed to use this opportunity of vaccine manufacturing to grow the local economy.
“It is a huge economy and we need to grow this economy to a great extent because we have the clinical skills and knowledge of how this is done. We now need to match it with infrastructure and development,” he said.
In June the South African government, local vaccine manufacturers and organised labour welcomed the agreement at the World Trade Organisation (WTO) that can support production of Covid-19 vaccines in developing countries.
The agreement allows governments to authorise local manufacturers to produce vaccines or their ingredients, substances or elements and utilise processes which are covered by patents, without the permission of the patent holders during the pandemic.
The agreement was seen as a solid and helpful basis to strengthen joint efforts to develop a strong African vaccine manufacturing capacity.
It was said that in order to scale up the production on the continent, further partnerships would be needed, including access to know-how and technologies. The unanimous support for the waiver agreement by all WTO countries lays the basis for such partnerships and gives countries greater flexibilities.
The professor said the one important intervention that was making a difference was vaccination and immunisation.
“It is the only intervention that has been able to eradicate diseases, reduce morbidity and mortality. It is a preventative strategy. We are not waiting for someone to get the meningitis or the pneumococcal pneumonia and treat it, but rather prevent it,” Jeena said.
“We have a major role to play here. We have all the ingredients, we need to get our communities, pharmaceutical services, healthcare professionals and the government to actually contribute to this process so that we can actually grow to be a sustainable nation.”
Jeena said while Africa had some of the required resources, none of those were in sub-Saharan Africa, but most were in northern Africa which meant that there was a huge target the SSA could provide this intellectual capital and product to going forward.
Kevin Francis, Pfizer country manager, South Africa, and cluster lead, said with the partnership with Biovac since 2015 they had ensured that there was a full biotechnology transfer both for the 13-valent pneumococcal conjugate vaccine.
“There is also the opportunity further down the line where we are engaged in talks for other products such as the respiratory syncytial virus as well as the 20-valent pneumococcal conjugate vaccine that could be manufactured locally in South Africa. We have a current plan and a future plan. We are starting to engage those discussions to see if they can be produced locally on the continent,” Francis said.
He said the future looked promising as good progress was made with regard to building local capabilities and capacity.
“I think it is now time for the government to partner with the private sector to ensure that policy underpins localisation, building of capability and capacity so that when needed the country has those essential vaccines for the people of South Africa and the rest of the continent,” Francis said.
Patrick Tippo, the head of Science and Innovation of the Biovac Institute and African Vaccine Manufacturing Initiative, said the announcement that Aspen Pharmacare had signed a deal with the Serum Institute of India last week to manufacture and sell four Aspen-branded vaccines for Africa was remarkable from a capacity-building perspective on the African continent and the contribution to the continent’s capability.
“Through the Africa CDC (Centres for Disease Control and Prevention) and the partnership for African vaccine manufacturers, there has been this call for overseas vaccine manufacturers to come to the party and enter into technology transfer deals with local manufacturers. So I think that is a very good signal,” Tippo said.
Research indicates that more than 12 500 vaccine-related positions can be created by 2040 on the continent. The African continent imports between 80 percent and 90 percent of all medicines, and while the Global Alliance for Vaccines Initiative (GAVI) provides access to vaccines for low-income countries, South Africa’s middle-income designation means it does not qualify for the subsidy.
“The key to stimulating South Africa’s economy lies in the local manufacturing of vaccines, which will see increased investments and intracontinental trade, as well as much-needed employment opportunities,” Tippo said.
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