The limited supply of vaccines in Africa at the height of the covid-19 pandemic suggested new ways to enable the continent become self-sufficient in vaccine production.

The International Vaccine Institute (IVI) is therefore proposing the establishment of an African Vaccines Alliance (AVA) to realise this goal.

This came to light when the Director General of IVI, Dr. Jerome Kim led an 11- member delegation to tour various research centres and institutions in Ghana to familiarize themselves with their operations.

According to Dr. Kim, the IVI resolved during the covid-19 pandemic that “Africa should no longer be dependent on the good will of other countries for vaccine technology that will prevent deaths and save lives on the continent.”

That meant “the only way we can do that is to develop sustainable vaccine manufacturing in Africa.”

AVA will be operated on what Dr. Kim refers to as “Research and Development Ecosystem”.

The concept goes beyond just manufacturing to building capacities to generate new vaccines.

“To do the testing here, to get the regulatory approval here which will be good such that the WHO will be able to accept and allow vaccines manufactured in Africa to be used outside Africa.

“It’s really about having things here and not reinvent them. Training what exist, strengthen them and pulling people together so that they are used to working as a team,”he noted.

The delegation visited the KNUST-IVI Collaborative Centre at Asante Akim Agogo, which was established through a partnership with the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology.

The Centre is a research and training site established to implement ongoing and new collaborative projects, including disease surveillance, vaccine clinical development, vaccination campaigns, and vaccine effectiveness and health economics studies for infectious diseases prevalent to the region such as typhoid and invasive non-typhoidal Salmonella.

Principal Investigator of the Typhoid Conjugate Vaccine Trial in Ghana, Prof. Ellis Owusu-Dabo assured the team of a comprehensive dissemination of results from the study by 2025.

The team also paid a courtesy call at the Noguchi Memorial Institute, PATH, National Vaccine Institute (NVI), National Immunization Technical Advisory Group (NITAG), government advisor on health, Dr. Anthony Nsiah-Asare, KNUST Vice-Chancellor, Prof. Mrs. Rita Akosua Dickson, and management of Agogo Presbyterian Hospital. Managing Director of DEK Limited, Dr. Kofi Nsiah-Poku also accompanied the team.

Prof. Mrs. Dickson also pledged the university's commitment to continuously collaborate with IVI for mutual gains.

"We think the future can only look brighter. There's been a lot that have been achieved in the past 20 years but we're very sure, if we continue to work together, we can achieve more," she said.

About International Vaccine Institute (IVI)

The International Vaccine Institute (IVI) is a nonprofit International Organization established in 1997 as an initiative of the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP). They are among the few organizations in the world dedicated to vaccines and vaccination for global health.

IVI focuses on vaccines against infectious diseases of major global health concern affecting the World’s most impoverished communities with the aim to make vaccines available and accessible for vulnerable populations in developing countries. IVI is headquartered in Seoul and hosted by the Republic of Korea with 39 member countries and the WHO on its treaty.

Dr. Jerome Kim was elaborate on the benefits Ghana stands to gain from joining the IVI.

The CEO of the National Vaccine Institute, Prof. William Ampofo and Dr. Nsiah-Asare jointly assured the delegation of Ghana’s preparedness to become a member state of the International Vaccine Institute.