Africa’s Biomanufacturing Moment: Building the Future of Vaccines at Home
Africa’s path toward becoming a hub for vaccine and biotherapeutic manufacturing is becoming clearer. A new review published in Discover Medicine outlines a practical, ecosystem-based approach to building the infrastructure, capacity, and partnerships necessary for the continent to move beyond dependency on imports and meet its health product needs.
The authors explain that the global COVID-19 pandemic highlighted the fragility of vaccine and therapeutic supply chains, especially for low- and middle-income countries. Africa aims to locally produce 60% of the vaccines it uses by 2040, as set out by the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (Africa CDC). Achieving this goal requires more than just individual factories; it demands a comprehensive ecosystem that includes incubators, contract development and manufacturing organizations (CDMOs), supplier networks, technology transfer partnerships, regulatory systems, and a skilled workforce.
Drawing lessons from Southeast Asia, including countries like South Korea, India, Indonesia, and Thailand, the review emphasizes that successful manufacturing ecosystems invest in innovation, regulatory maturity, talent retention, and public-private partnerships. The authors note that countries have accelerated their drug and biotech capacities by integrating research, manufacturing, and quality systems rather than approaching them in isolation.
Key elements highlighted in the review include establishing strong biotech incubators to support start-ups, building scalable CDMOs and contract manufacturing organizations (CMOs), investing in drug-substance and excipient manufacturing, and strengthening regulatory frameworks to reach World Health Organization (WHO) maturity level-3 and beyond. Additionally, the review stresses the importance of retaining talent by providing local jobs, fostering entrepreneurship, and creating career paths that discourage brain drain.
For stakeholders in Africa’s biotech and health sectors, this review offers a clear roadmap: move beyond isolated infrastructure projects and focus on systems, capacity-building, regulation, and value-chain integration. As the authors conclude, the continent must adopt an “ecosystems approach” to vaccine and biologics manufacturing—aligning research, manufacturing, regulation, and financing in a coordinated manner.
Read the full article from Discover Medicine
