AfDB unveils $6 billion plan to boost health infrastructure and pharmaceutical manufacturing in Africa
29 MAY 2025 – The African Development Bank (AfDB) Group is implementing a $6 billion investment plan to transform Africa’s healthcare landscape and strengthen health systems across the continent.
Ghana preparing to transition out of GAVI support and reduce vaccine imports by 2030
7 MAY 2025 – Ghana is on course to achieving vaccine self-sufficiency by 2030 through the establishment of a pharmaceutical manufacturing hub in Accra.
The project, aimed at reducing dependence on imported vaccines, is also expected to generate thousands of jobs across the country.
Ghana secures GAVI approval for Hepatitis B birth dose vaccine
6 MAY 2025 – Ghana’s fight against vaccine-preventable diseases has received a major boost following the Global Alliance for Vaccines and Immunization’s (GAVI) approval of the country’s application for Hepatitis B birth dose vaccine.
“The era of aid or free money is gone. Africa must overhaul its approach toward achieving fast-paced development.”
12 APRIL 2025 – In the face of dwindling global funding, tariffs, and geopolitical tensions, African Development Bank Group President Akinwumi Adesina said on Friday that Africa must wean itself from aid dependency and urgently chart its future through self-reliance, strategic partnerships, and leveraging its vast natural resources.
He spoke on Friday in Abuja at the 14th Convocation Ceremony of the National Open University of Nigeria (NOUN), where he delivered a thought-provoking lecture.
Flagship Gavi vaccine projects face axe if US funding stops, CEO warns
31 MARCH 2025 – Some of Gavi’s flagship vaccine programmes will have to be cut if the United States goes through with a plan to stop funding the global partnership, its CEO has warned.
Among the projects under threat are plans to begin building emergency stockpiles of new mpox and tuberculosis vaccines, the distribution of badly needed malaria jabs, as well as a billion dollar programme to boost vaccine production in Africa.
Gavi’s core programming not impacted by US foreign aid freeze
28 FEBRUARY 2025 – Core programming for Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance hasn’t been impacted by the Trump administration’s ongoing gutting of the United States Agency for International Development.
Gavi — a public-private partnership that helps vaccinate more than half the world’s children against infectious diseases — received some $300 million from the U.S. government last December.
Landmark Vaccine Deals Signal Africa’s Shift Toward Local Manufacturing
14 FEBRUARY 2025 – For the first time, an end-to-end mRNA vaccine production platform will be built in Africa, with plans to manufacture 100 million doses annually. A separate cross-continental partnership is advancing homegrown mRNA technology. These landmark agreements, signed in Cairo, are backed by a $1.2 billion investment from Gavi, The Vaccine Alliance. They aim to ensure vaccines are made by Africa, for Africa, and set the stage for expanded local vaccine production and cross-continental collaboration.
Global Partners Invest $45 Million to Boost African Vaccine Production
17 DECEMBER 2024 – In significant efforts to strengthen public health and improve vaccine access in Africa, the U.S. International Development Finance Corporation, the African Development Bank, and the International Finance Corporation (IFC) have jointly announced a $45 million financing package for VaxSen, a subsidiary of Senegal’s Institut Pasteur de Dakar (IPD).
Results from a joint assessment by Africa CDC, CHAI, and PATH
21 SEPTEMBER 2024 – Africa is largely reliant on other regions of the world for lifesaving vaccines. Only one percent of the vaccines administered in Africa are produced locally; the remaining 99 percent are imported. Such an imbalance in production can contribute to unequal access to life-saving vaccines and enormous health disparities between regions.
‘People didn’t believe Africa could be a source of innovation’: how the continent holds the key to future drug research
28 OCTOBER 2024 – Africa has the greatest variety in human genes anywhere on the planet but the world is failing to capitalise on it, according one of the continent’s leading scientists, Prof Kelly Chibale, a man determined to change that. He believes the birthplace of humanity could hold the scientific key to its future.
Mpox crisis: Why do African countries struggle to make or buy vaccines?
12 SEPTEMBER 2024 – After months of delay due to logistics, the first sets of mpox vaccines have finally begun arriving in Democratic Republic of the Congo, donated by Western countries.
The Central African nation is the epicentre of a new mpox outbreak that led the World Health Organization (WHO) to sound its highest alert level last month. In 2024, more than 20,000 mpox cases have been reported and more than 500 people have died. The virus is present in 13 African countries, as well as in some European and Asian nations.
The A-Z on what it would take for Africa to sustainably manufacture vaccines
SEPTEMBER 2024 – To help solve the vast vaccine inequality and vaccine inaccessibility around the world, which is unfolding before our eyes again with mpox, Executive Editor of Business Philippa Larkin interviewed Dr Stavros Nicolaou on what it would take for the continent to be able to manufacture its own vaccines.