Nigeria Set to Become Global Hub for Vaccine Production, Distribution - Buhari

The president called for the speedy take-off of local production of mRNA vaccines following Nigeria's selection alongside five other African countries

President Muhammadu Buhari on Tuesday said Nigeria is ready to become a global hub for sustainable manufacturing and distribution of vaccines and biological pharmaceuticals.

The ongoing effort of his administration towards achieving the target, he said, is to support initiatives towards keeping "all of mankind safe."

Mr Buhari made this known while speaking at the first World Bio Summit, 2022 in Seoul, South Korea.

Nigeria was invited to the Summit based on her selection alongside five other African countries by WHO and the European Union (EU) during the last EU-African Summit in Brussels, Belgium in February for mRNA technology transfer and Global Training Hub for Bio-manufacturing of vaccines on the African continent.

Jointly organised by the Government of the Republic of Korea and the World Health Organisation (WHO), the two-day Summit scheduled to hold between 25 and 26 October, has the theme: 'The Future of Vaccine and Bio-Health.'

Nigeria's commitment

According to a statement issued and signed by the Special Adviser to the President on Media and Publicity, Femi Adesina, Mr Buhari pledged commitment to global response to known or emerging pathogens, including the global vaccine assurance ecosystem and equitable access for all.

The President said Nigeria would continue to explore bilateral, multilateral and other opportunities for cutting-edge technology as a centre of excellence for vaccine manufacturing and distribution.

He called for the speedy take-off of local production of mRNA vaccines following Nigeria's selection by the WHO.

"As the mRNA technology allows science to shift attention to yet unknown disease threats, we see opportunities to address diseases that have plagued sub-Saharan Africa and third-world countries for centuries.

"We believe biomedical scientists can dream of ending the scourge of Malaria, Ebola, Lassa fever and various endemic neglected tropical diseases through development and manufacture of efficacious and affordable vaccines and therapeutics," he said.

Mr Buhari also appealed to partners to support efforts towards the entire value chain of vaccine technology development in the African continent.

He said ongoing conversations on the future of vaccines tend to support the decentralisation of capacity to produce essential materials to respond globally to pandemics.

He also expressed Nigeria's preference for a global warehousing and supply chain strategy to attend to the needs of most countries.

"We believe that this concept makes sense and we fully endorse the wisdom of strategic and balanced spread of critical manufacturing capacity and essential stockpiles across the globe," he said.

Achieving the initiative

Mr Buhari declared that Nigeria is ready and able to offer itself for this initiative, due to its strategic geographical location, strength of economy and market size which he noted are derived from a population of over 214 million people.

He noted that Nigeria's comparative advantage is also supported from her experience in human and animal vaccine production record since 1924, when colonial authorities produced WHO-certified smallpox, yellow fever and anti-rabies vaccines locally - a technology that has been improved upon and being used in Jos, Plateau State of Nigeria.

Mr Buhari said the high quality of current academic and research work and potential in Nigeria is also noteworthy.

Equitable distribution

At the summit, Mr Buhari reaffirmed Nigeria's position on equitable distribution of vaccines, citing lessons learnt from the COVID-19 pandemic and the unpleasant experiences of developing countries.

Describing the global response to the pandemic as discriminatory, the President demanded that the world must not allow the serious public health failure to happen again.

"This Summit certainly opens up global conversations at high levels of government, on measures that are expected to forestall recurrence of the unpleasant experiences that Low-Income and Lower Middle-Income countries in Africa and Asia, especially, had to endure with regard to access to vaccines during the COVID-19 pandemic," he said.

He said inequity in distribution of virtually all requirements for diagnostics and therapy was a key factor in the lack of capacity to produce basic or essential commodities and the total dependence on imported goods.

Mr Buhari explained that the COVID-19 pandemic threatened and continues to threaten all of mankind with no regard for race, region, or economic standing.

He said global response was not only segmented but discriminatory.

"If the pandemic had taken the course that was predicted by some experts, there could have been an existential threat to sections of humanity. Such a serious public health failure should not be allowed to happen again and lessons must be learned from it," he said.

Curtailing COVID-19

President Buhari recounted the efforts by his administration to mitigate the impact and curtail the spread of COVID-19 in the country.

He said the positive exploits by the country were recognised and commended by the WHO.

In addition, he said WHO continuously advocated equitable sharing of vaccines through the COVAX facility, and for sharing of technology through bilateral and multilateral agreements through the COVID-19 Technology Access Pool.

President Buhari said the global outbreak of the pandemic has jolted the collective consciousness of world leaders and the need to chart a better future.

He said; "Now more than ever, we must step up as leaders in a world in desperate need of healing and repair, to begin to have the difficult conversations about a future, which we must be better prepared for to avoid further devastation to our lives, livelihoods, and physical environment.

"The pandemic, within its first 3 months, exposed several weaknesses in our global health and economic systems as the world shut down and panic pervaded nations scrambling to control a virus we were yet to fully understand.

"In those tough times, we were reminded, once more, of the important role played by world leaders, whose citizens entrusted them with the responsibility of charting the way out of those tumultuous times, to a future of tranquility and hope and a more resilient world that is safer for future generations."

Reviving vaccine production

On Nigeria's quest to revive local vaccine production, the President recounted that the government had ratified a joint venture agreement with a leading Nigerian Pharma Company for a Public Private Enterprise.

He said Nigeria has also hosted representatives of frontline Research and Development organisations to collaborate on clinical trials.

Mr Buhari said; "The aim is to support manufacturers in LMIC to produce their vaccines, ensuring that they have all the necessary operating procedures and technical know-how to produce mRNA vaccines at scale while observing the WHO manufacturing practices."

He said Nigeria is already taking steps to provide the needed infrastructure and requisite funding for the implementation of the vaccine initiative.

"In this regard, a private pharmaceutical company to facilitate pharmaceutical production of the mRNA vaccines has been identified to pilot this project," he said.

This article originally appeared on Premium Times