[B00M] Why Nigeria cannot produce COVID-19 vaccine | READ DETAILS

It is very clear that a country like Nigeria will have to cough out a substantial amount of its hard-earned foreign exchange to procure COVID-19 vaccines.

It is estimated that for Nigeria to cover about 70% of its population before herd immunity arrives it will need to spend close to N400B (One billion USD) to procure the highly valued COVID 19 vaccine.

For a country in recession this forex requirements could have been better spent. Only if the country had invested in its health systems and established vaccine manufacturing capabilities.

In fact, individuals like Mr. Bill Gates argues that Nigeria should divert resources budgeted for approved COVID-19 vaccines into the development of the country's weak health care system and wait for the COVAX arrangements to kick in.

Countries are currently sourcing their COVID-19 vaccine availability through the following five routes - COVAX initiative (co-led by Gavi, the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations (CEPI) and the WHO), bilateral agreements between governments and manufacturers/countries, pre-positioning through pre-orders, off the shelf commercial contracts and leveraging vaccine manufacturing capabilities in-country.

For Nigeria, there is need to fast track its vaccine manufacturing potential as part of the overall pandemic preparedness and as a health security priority.

it is worthy of note that the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic will not be the last one. It is therefore imperative that ahead of future outbreaks Nigeria needs to invest in vaccine manufacturing capacity rather than relying on reserved doses through the COVAX arrangements or exploring country to country contracts as is been explored with Russia and China.

Vaccine nationalism implies that western countries have already pre-ordered the bulk of potential vaccines even though they do not have the bulk of the world's population. With half of our population classified as poor the possibility of commercial purchase for the vaccine is far-fetched.

Countries with manufacturing capacity have been able to jump the queue. Johnson and Johnson will be utilizing the plants of ASPEN in South Africa for fill and finish. Argentina and Mexico will produce the AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine for most of Latin America.

In India, the world's largest vaccine manufacturer, the Serum Institute of India (SII) has been contracted to produce large amounts of the AstraZeneca and Novavax vaccines - with half of it promised to the Indian government.

Whilst acknowledging the complexity of vaccine production and the difficulties inherent in scaling up production, Nigeria ought to be one of the countries with not just greater vaccine manufacturing capacity. It should have been able to use that capacity as leverage like the aforementioned countries.

It ought to be clear that a decision to invest in vaccine manufacturing capacity should now not be guided by just financial returns but undoubtedly national interest.

Africa represents 14% of the world's population but has only an infinitesimal capability (less than 0.1%) of the world's vaccine production! Beyond the lack of technological expertise and high research and development costs associated with the early phases of vaccine development, there are also concerns associated with the cost of production in small to medium plants who cannot compete with large manufacturers.

Furthermore, small sized plants might not be feasible as subsidies from GAVI makes the prospects of such local production non-viable. For comparison Serum Institute of India (SII) produces 100 million vaccine doses per month whilst ASPEN of South Africa produces 300 million doses per annum.

However, COVID-19 pandemic requires a serious rethink of previous efforts for local production of vaccine in Africa and this should be led by Nigeria. This requires a number of policy actions on the part of the Government of Nigeria.

The sweet spot for early starters in vaccine manufacturing like Nigeria is the last and final stage where vaccines are filled into vials and packaged for delivery and is often called "fill and finishÔÇØ. Fill and finish technology transfers offer a relatively high value proposition and are more common than technology transfers including bulk antigen production.

AFNEWS wishes the Nigerian government would consider a critical look at their weaknesses in the area of vaccine manufacturing and make further amendments