The Board of Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance has approved the establishment of a new African Vaccine Manufacturing Accelerator (AVMA), a financing instrument that is to make more than $1 billion available to support sustainable vaccine manufacturing in Africa. The board decision marks a historic reversal of past efforts which saw the agency’s massive budget for […] Continue reading ->
LUSAKA, Zambia – Ensuring that Africa can manufacture its own vaccines will represent “the second independence of Africa”, Dr Jean Kaseya, Director General of the Africa Centre for Disease Control and Prevention (Africa CDC), said at the start of the Conference for Public Health in Africa 2023 (CPHIA) on Monday. “Many African countries got their […] Continue reading ->
The global health landscape is marked by paradoxes. The last several decades have been shaped by progress and setbacks – new medicines and emerging diseases, technological advancements and entrenched inequities.  The Ebola outbreaks and COVID-19 pandemic exposed many of the already existing inequities in our global health ecosystem, from unequal access to vaccines to restrictive […] Continue reading ->
BERLIN – German mRNA vaccine maker BioNTech’s partnerships with vaccine manufacturing facilities in Rwanda, Senegal and South Africa will support the African Union’s ambition to produce 60% of the continent’s vaccine needs by 2040, the company told the World Health Summit. But Ayaode Alakija, former Chief Humanitarian Coordinator for Nigeria and World Health Summit Ambassador, […] Continue reading ->
Health systems in Africa are under considerable strain: rapid demographic change, rising non-communicable diseases, and emerging and re-emerging threats such as COVID-19 and Ebola are increasing demands on limited health services. Africa, however, faces a challenging period in health financing to meet these increasing needs. Health spending in most countries remains far short of what is […] Continue reading ->
Strengthening Africa’s medicines regulatory framework is key to achieving the “bold goal” of having 60% of the continent’s vaccines produced locally by 2040, said Margareth Ndomondo-Sigonda, head of health at the African Union’s development agency, AUDA-NEPAD. But only 7% of African country’s national medicines regulatory agencies (NMRA) have “moderately developed capacity”, and more than 90% […] Continue reading ->
Botswana’s approach to health is an example to the African continent, with strong leadership, investment in research and development and universal health services available for a nominal charge, said Dr Jean Kaseya, head of the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (Africa CDC). Kaseya was speaking on Monday at the opening of the World […] Continue reading ->