The recently concluded 9th IFC Global Private Health Conference in Cape Town brought a range of international stakeholders together, to consider some of the most pressing problems facing global health, as countries focus on pandemic recovery.

With the ultimate goal of improving access to, and building resilient, affordable, and quality healthcare systems, the conference created a knowledge-sharing platform and showcased the potential for partnerships between health agencies, investors, governments, and the private sector.

David Honba, our Head of Business Development, represented Unizima at the event, and participated in a roundtable titled, “Localization of Vaccine Manufacturing and Supply Chains – Success and Sustainability Requirements”.

Given Unizima’s mission to make biomanufacturing a reality in emerging markets, the roundtable allowed us to share our expertise, as we discussed how we could successfully and sustainably achieve geographically diversified vaccine production.

Key takeaways included:

1. Building more than buildings: There has been an unprecedented increase in investment and political support for vaccine manufacturing facilities in low and middle-income countries (LMICs), particularly in Africa, on the back of the vaccine inequities experienced during the COVID-19 pandemic. However, a critical bottleneck to successfully delivering diversified manufacturing in these regions is attracting, retaining and upskilling local talent. Investment in bricks and mortar is vital, but it is just the start. A facility can only become operational and sustainable if we build a trained, skilled and dedicated workforce, and this too needs urgent investment. The involvement of academia and industry is particularly crucial, to ensure that the local workforce has access to hands-on training in a Good Manufacturing Practices (GMP) environment. Securing a pipeline of talented personnel will be critical for long term operational viability.
2. Manufacturing matched by regulatory maturity: The vision of geographically diversified vaccine manufacturing needs to go hand in hand with a realistic understanding of existing regulatory systems. Only a handful of countries in Africa is currently able to produce vaccines, but they are unable to export them, due to a lack of regulatory capacity. Investments in manufacturing projects need to consider the existing regulatory maturity of a country, to set a realistic timeline for when vaccines fit for commercial use could be available.
3. Trialing transformative technology: Geographically diversified manufacturing will require a move away from business as usual in terms of the manufacturing design, networks and technologies considered. Next generation technologies – particularly single-use equipment and mRNA manufacturing platforms – can accelerate the manufacturing of vaccines and biologics, thanks to their lower capital and operational expenditure requirements. In addition to the obvious financial benefits, they enable faster scale up, which is essential in the face of an outbreak. Trailing these technologies and embedding them into new projects will require alignment across R&D, clinical and commercial phases and coordination among stakeholders.

The roundtable concluded with unanimous agreement that the public and private sectors, academia, and funders/donors would need to work closely together, if we are ever to move the needle on the key success factors above. This is a long-term, but attainable goal.

And we are here to help drive this change.

Vaccine manufacturing is complex and specialised, with several pieces of the puzzle that need to fit together seamlessly. Our advisory, design and build, and workforce development solutions, combined with access to ground-breaking technologies for mRNA and viral vector production from the Univercells group, allow us to adopt a holistic approach. We look forward to continuing to work with partners and collaborators from the conference towards this common goal to ensure more resilient and equitable health systems.

To learn more about our offerings and how we are strengthening the biomanufacturing ecosystem in multiple countries, visit www.unizima.com/whatwedo or send us a message.

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