Be systematic in vaccine devt and  manufacturing

On March 2, the Daily Monitor published a story: “Uganda 15 years away from Covid jab – experts” which elicited many (understandably) angry reactions on social media.  This is probably because of the high hopes that Ugandans had in the scientific work that was happening behind the scenes and the financial commitment that the government made in our first locally driven effort to make a human vaccine. 
Meanwhile, continental efforts have also been ongoing since 2020 at Africa CDC to increase the share of vaccines made and consumed within Africa from 1 percent currently, to 60 percent by 2040. These efforts are noble, considering that African countries whose population of 1.2 billion people are most at risk of death from vaccine-preventable diseases make only 1percent of their total vaccine consumption. 

However, our good plans face a serious risk of not coming to fruition soon, not even within the new timeframes we are setting for ourselves; if we do not make proper strategies founded in a systematic way to approach investment in scientific research.
First, we must address the financial mechanism of this initiative, bearing in mind that vaccine development is a costly venture, estimated to cost between USD 31-68m to develop a single candidate vaccine till phase 2 clinical testing (in humans), and even after this, it could fail to make it to the market. 

This means that money must be invested systematically over time and stewarded faithfully for any benefits to be realised. Is the Government ready to prioritise and sustain the level of investment required to keep this effort going for several decades to come? I do not doubt the commitment and capacity of our government in this space, but I prefer to be more of a realist. While keeping an eye on the ultimate goal of developing our own vaccine R&D capacity within the country, I am of the opinion that we are better positioned in the short-term to explore how to attract top quality private-sector investment in end-stage vaccine (and drug) manufacturing processes for which we already have significant technical capacity and skills, such as bulk formulation, filling and packaging. 
This would mean that instead of pumping money into R&D expenses right now, we could commit this money to pay for routine-use vaccines made (even if at least partially) in Uganda by manufacturers that will have chosen to invest.

With the right investment policies, such manufacturers could expand to export quality vaccines into regional markets and progressively integrate their manufacturing processes to move into R&D when it starts to make commercial sense. 
Of course, in the world of vaccine manufacturing, it is impossible to sell your products anywhere without a strong vaccines regulatory system with laboratory capacity for lot release testing- hence investment into this component would be paramount. 
These interventions would effectively reduce or end our over-dependence on external financing mechanisms for vaccine procurement.
To keep on track with our long-term R&D prospects, there is a need to build strong reliance on universities as well as sustain a fund for scientific research to solve our problems. The anaemia of local research funding is the reason why there is almost no basic science research to tackle tropical diseases which are ironically termed “neglected” while they continue to kill millions of people.

Government must, therefore, commit to fund scientists leading top quality scientific projects aimed at unravelling the biology of disease in our context and hence partner with the rest of the world in developing solutions for treatment, diagnosis, and vaccination.
From a health security standpoint, the government may fund the creation of small-scale vaccine research, development, and manufacturing units operated within academic institutions, with the capacity to manufacture and roll out vaccines for clinical testing or against local disease outbreaks. This strategic intervention should be feasible because most local disease outbreaks will often require lower doses of vaccines than would make commercial sense to a typical large scale vaccine manufacturer.  

Such small-scale units would not only help to improve the quality of scientific education and research in vaccines and drugs in general but could also bridge the existing gap between basic science and clinical application, which is a major hindrance in our current vaccine project. With the correct priorities it should be possible to put the brilliant minds of our scientists to work in solving our problems. We ought to take deliberate steps today to avert tomorrow’s crises. If we fail to build this capacity in our generation, the Covid-19 pandemic will have been a learning opportunity gone to waste.
 Authored by Moses Akampurira, pharmacist and a graduate student in vaccinology @ Université Claude-Bernard Lyon 1- France.