The National Vaccine Institute (NVI) is seeking partnership with key investors to help drive local vaccine manufacturing in the country by 2030.

Ghana is expected to fund its vaccines locally at a cost of about $50 million in four year’s time, when funding from the global vaccine alliance(GAVI) ends.

The NVI is, therefore, looking for strategic investors such as the Ghana Exim Bank, Afreximbank and the International Finance Corporation (IFC) to fund local manufacturers to produce vaccines for the country.

The Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the NVI, Dr Sodzi Sodzi-Tettey, made this known in Accra during a working visit to the Editor, Graphic, Theophilus Yartey.

The visit was to solicit media support for the NVI as it worked at building the country's ecosystem towards self-sufficiency when funding from GAVI finally ends in 2030.

Self-reliance

To ensure that the country becomes self-reliant when external funding dries up, Dr Sodzi-Tettey said the NVI was currently seeking partnerships and mobilising resources ahead of the deadline.

He said last August, the institute organised a vaccine manufacturing investment forum as part of the mobilisation efforts.

So far, NVI has worked with a private sector collaborator, Atlantic Life Sciences, and also signed a tech transfer agreement with PT Biopharma of Indonesia for the manufacture of tetanus diphtheria, which would be the first vaccine to be manufactured locally by 2027.

Dr Sodzi-Tettey said in March last year, the NVI also had market authorisation for the manufacture of snake venom antiserum and expressed the hope that its production in commercial quantities would start this year.

The CEO of NVI added that with regard to local manufacturing, a lot was happening but the issue of capital was crucial.

He said the two vaccine manufacturers and the institute were working with the required amount in excess of $100 million as production cost.

“These are local manufacturers – Atlantic Life Sciences and DEK Vaccines Limited – hence the need to get the Ghana Exim Bank, Afreximbank and IFC involved,” he explained.

Donor exit

This year, Ghana has paid $15 million as its counterpart funding to GAVI, and by 2030 the country must raise almost $50 million to procure these vaccines without any support.

"So, the question is whether this $50 million to $60 million annual budget you are going to raise would be given to vaccine manufacturers elsewhere or you will invest it in your local economy. And that is where President John Dramani Mahama has been talking about health sovereignty, the need to reset the agenda," Dr Sodzi-Tettey said.

New ecosystem

Recently, President Mahama allocated $50 million in additional seed funding to the National Vaccine Institute.

The funding is supposed to help with manufacturing, research and development, and also for it to achieve compliance with international regulatory standards.

The CEO of NVI said achieving compliance was very critical as the country moved ahead with the agenda.

Development finance and multilateral institutions have pledged in the region of $12 billion to assist African countries.

However, Dr Sodzi-Tettey said African manufacturers were unable to access those funds because of all kinds of conditionalities attached to them.

“Even GAVI has put aside $1.2 billion for what they call Africa Vaccines Manufacturing – that if you meet all the milestones, if you do your Good Manufacturing Practice (GMP) facility, if you manufacture priority vaccines – we will give you milestone payments,” he said.

However, African manufacturers are struggling to even get the funds to build the GMP compliant facilities before they manufacture the products and access the funds.

There are also those that commit funds to developments elsewhere in Africa, such as South Africa, and are not prepared to support where the real big money was needed, the CEO explained.

"So, the conversation is slow and tedious. So, yes, the funders come in, but the point is that when a person is talking about health sovereignty, Accra Reset, you know you have to also really dedicate your resources to support these things," he stated

Dr Sodzi-Tettey expressed the hope that because it was a continental agenda, the political support would make it work.

"The ecosystem is being built. People are getting used to all kinds of things.

But we are part of the conversation and the monies that the President gave, the kinds of statements he's been making in Geneva and all of that have made people take Ghana more seriously in terms of what we are trying to do. 

“And they know it's not easy, but they see that the government is committed to it," he stressed.