Africa has the highest incidence of mortality caused by infectious diseases, and remarkably does not have the capacity to manufacture vaccines that are essential to reduce mortality, improve life expectancy, and promote economic growth. Up to 99.9% of the vaccines consumed by people on the continent come from sources outside Africa. GAVI (Global Alliance for Vaccines and Immunization) has significantly helped in the introduction of new vaccines in Africa, however its sustainability is questionable. As a reactive response to dealing with nCovid-19 pandemic, WHO and the rich countries established COVAX to acquire and supply vaccines to people in developing and poor countries. Besides, challenges to the nimbleness in mobilizing enough vaccines by WHO/COVAX & GAVI to meet the needs of the continent during a global pandemic like the current nCovid-19 an effective response is significantly challenged when the vaccines are developed outside the continent. Africa with its high population and accelerating economic growth plus its abundant natural resources is an attractive market for vaccines, with the current vaccine consumption costs estimated at about $3-5 billion/annum and is expected to only grow with time as more people get vaccinated.
Just like the H1N1 influenza pandemic in 2009 and the Ebola outbreak in 2014, the current global nCovid-19 pandemic has exposed the vulnerabilities of countries across the world, whether developed or developing, in dealing with a novel infectious disease through the disruption caused by the nCovid-19 pandemic in the normal daily lives of citizens, while negatively impacting the economies of countries globally. Due to this, the race to develop and produce nCovid-19 vaccine was fast tracked by the developed countries and this resulted with the emergency use approval of the first amazingly effective vaccine against the SARS-CoV2 virus in December 2020. This was rapidly followed by the emergency use approval of 3 more vaccines developed by western biotech/pharma companies with the financial support of their governments.
Equipped with the infrastructure and capacity to develop and produce vaccines, wealthy countries have directed tremendous resources towards developing vaccines and therapeutics to address the nCovid-19 pandemic. Thus, they are now leading in the number of people vaccinated (40-90%) compared to poor or developing countries that barely have 1-2% of their people vaccinated. Meanwhile, Africa is left out watching on the sideline and hoping that someone comes to its AID due to the failure to invest in the development of vaccine production infrastructure. Given all the resources Africa has, this a shame and a necessary and urgent tragedy that must be addressed immediately, seriously and aggressively by building the infrastructures needed internally with investors and friends that are committed to such a course.
With a population of approximately 1.4 billion, just about 15% of the world population, Africa produces less than 0.1% of the world's vaccines it consumes. Its vaccine expenditure of about 3 billion dollars is sufficient to invest in vaccine production infrastructure that is sustainable given the projected economic growth of Africa, and the improvement in living standards that will accompany this as the continent’s GDP expands.
Through the application of Daktari Biotechnology's subunit vaccine & VLPs development technology, the company has started the development of a SARS-CoV2 subunit vaccine program. This technology will be extended to other human vaccine development programs like HPV, H1N1, Ebola and Yellow Fever among many others. The company will also establish a domestic animals vaccine development unit by deploying the subunit protein and VLPs technologies.
There is no doubt that besides having a viable pharmaceutical industry in Africa, adding a viable vaccine production institute would have an incredibly positive impact on Africa’s health systems and capacity to rapidly respond to the health needs of the people during pandemics, besides contribute to the improvement in the socioeconomic development of the continent. Daktari Biotechnology's aim is with time to be a major player in the vaccine space by developing, manufacturing and supplying 50-80% of the vaccines needed in the African continent within the next 10 years. The company invites investors to join it in the Africa Vaccines Venture to help us achieve our Mission and Vision.