The Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention and the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations signed a Memorandum of Understanding on the sidelines of the 77th World Health Assembly to expand their partnership to strengthen epidemic and pandemic prevention, preparedness, and response in Africa.
This is according to a statement published on Africa CDC’s website on Tuesday.
The statement indicates that both organizations will collaborate to boost regional vaccine research, development, and sustainable manufacturing leadership and capabilities in Africa, fostering a faster and more equitable response to emerging infectious diseases.
Africa CDC’s Director General, Dr Jean Kaseya said the New Public Health Order calls to action to build resilient health systems capable of managing recurrent, high-impact infectious disease and outbreaks; an action-oriented partnership such as this is at the core,” said
Dr Kaseya said this collaboration with CEPI in research, clinical trials, and local manufacturing of medical countermeasures will elevate Africa’s readiness against outbreaks, epidemics, and pandemics.
“African leadership and capabilities will be key for ensuring the continent can respond to increasingly frequent infectious disease outbreaks,” said CEPI’s Chief Executive Officer, Richard Hatchett.
Hatchett said the preparatory work to manage these outbreaks—from greater vaccine manufacturing capacity to clinical trial readiness—must be undertaken now.
“CEPI stands ready to support Africa CDC in the realisation of these goals and to further strengthen Africa’s preparedness and resilience against future outbreaks,” he said.
The statement reads: “In line with the African Union’s ambition to produce 60 per cent of the continent’s vaccine needs in Africa by 2040 under the Africa CDC’s Partnerships for African Vaccine Manufacturing; the expanded partnership will ultimately focus its efforts on enhancing research and development, building a workforce as well as supply chain optimization to support resilient health systems.
“This ambition will increase vaccine sovereignty and reduce external reliance, helping prevent a recurrence of the vaccine inequity seen during the COVID-19 response in Africa.
“To boost vaccine accessibility and efficiency and meet this goal, there is a need to invest in vaccine R&D and manufacturing innovations, amongst others, and build a resilient regional supply chain.”
The statement indicates that the Africa CDC and CEPI will coordinate to fund innovations accelerating speed, scale, or accessibility for initial implementation with African manufacturers.
“This investment will support sustainable manufacturing for routine vaccinations in Africa, and—in the event of an outbreak—these facilities can be mobilized to produce response vaccines promptly,” It said.