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Turkey has pledged 15 million doses of COVID-19 vaccine to Africa

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President Recep Tayyip Erdogan stated at a major conference of African leaders that Turkey will deliver 15 million Covid-19 vaccine shots to the continent, calling the continent’s poor vaccination rates a “blot on humanity.”

During Erdogan’s tenure as Prime Minister and subsequently President of Turkey, which began in 2003, Ankara has made significant investments in building trade and diplomatic ties with the world’s poorest continent.

Erdogan told a crowd of hundreds of leaders and ministers that Turkey would provide 15 million doses of the Covid-19 vaccine to Africa, where cases are quickly increasing and immunisation rates are poor.

“We are aware of the global inequity in receiving the Covid-19 vaccine, as well as Africa’s unfair treatment,” Erdogan stated.

Turkey is researching on its own vaccine, dubbed Turkovac, which is currently awaiting emergency use approval.

Erdogan stated that after any approval, it will be shared with Africa.

Turkey’s remarks did not make it clear whether it would deliver certain doses of the globally licenced vaccinations it is presently employing, including those made by Pfizer-BioNTech.

“Within our resources, we plan to share 15 million vaccine shots in the coming months to help to the settlement of this crisis,” he stated.

Soaring infection rates

According to AFP calculations based on government numbers, the number of new infections across Africa has increased by 57% in the last week.

The worst-affected country is South Africa, which was one of the first in the world to be infected with the new Omicron form, which is thought to be even more contagious than previous coronavirus strains.

Erdogan stated that Turkey wished to improve ties with Africa in a variety of areas, including health, defence, energy, agriculture, and technology.

“Our true potential goes much beyond the goals we’ve set,” he remarked.

Turkey and African countries agreed in a final agreement to deepen cooperation in a number of areas, including health, “via more health sector investments.”

“We decided on a road map to improve our relations with the declaration we approved at this summit and the joint action plan,” Erdogan said at a concluding press conference.

Focus on trade

In the last 20 years, trade between Turkey and Africa has increased from $5.4 billion to $25.3 billion (4.8 billion euros to 22.5 billion euros).

Erdogan claimed that it had reached $30 billion in the first 11 months of 2021.

Turkey has set a new trade volume target for the future: $75 billion.

The third Turkish-African summit, which is by far the largest to date, is being attended by 16 African presidents of state and 102 ministers, including 26 top diplomats, according to Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu.

Erdogan also met with African leaders one-on-one, including Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed and Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari, all of whom have showed interest in Turkey’s defence industry.

The next Turkey-Africa conference will take place in an unnamed African country in 2026.

3 million US Dollars boost has been given to a Kenyan medical firm

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Revital Healthcare EPZ Ltd, a Kilifi-based medical supplies manufacturer, has obtained a new round of funding from two Japanese companies, allowing it to expand its production capacity.

Revital Healthcare has received a USD3 million (Sh339 million) investment from Asia Africa Investment and Consulting Pte Ltd (AAIC) and Ohara Pharmaceutical Company Ltd.

The Kilifi-based business, which is one of only 25 auto-disable syringe manufacturers pre-qualified by the World Health Organization (WHO) and the only one in Africa, will increase its yearly production capacity from 75 million to more than 400 million.

This comes after the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation invested Sh440 million in the company, boosting output to at least 300 million syringes per year by 2022, according to the company’s sales, marketing, and product development director Roneek Vora.

Revital believes that the support will result in the development of over 100 direct new employment and over 5,000 indirect new jobs, with at least 50% of new hires being women.

As the global rollout of COVID-19 vaccinations advances, demand for auto-disable syringes has risen.

According to PATH, a global non-profit organisation dedicated to advancing public health, there will be a scarcity of approximately 2.2 billion 0.5ml vaccine syringes in 2022.

In low and middle-income countries, particularly in Africa, this will have a significant impact on the Covid-19 immunisation effort, child immunisation, and inoculation of the new malaria vaccines.

Revital now produces 45 critical medical disposables, including syringes, Rapid Diagnostic Test Kits for Covid and Malaria, Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) kits, surgical face masks, and viral transmission medium kits.

The investment comes at a time when the Omicron variant of Covid-19 is rapidly spreading over the world, causing countries to reintroduce severe measures such as lockdowns in an attempt to limit the infection.

In a statement, Vora stated, “Expanding manufacturing capacity in Africa for crucial goods like syringes is essential to secure adequate supply for the continent.”

He expressed his pride in the company’s contribution to worldwide efforts to guarantee that Africans have access to life-saving immunisation syringes.

Revital Healthcare chairman Rajni Vora stated that the business plans to expand into the diagnostics line, laboratory consumables, and other more necessary medical supplies with the financing from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, AAIC, and Ohara Pharmaceuticals.

President and CEO of Ohara Pharmaceuticals Ltd, Seiji Ohara, stated that the demand for medical syringes that protect African lives against not just Covid-19 but also other infectious diseases including malaria and HIV/AIDS will increase in the future.

“We are committed to and excited about this strategic relationship in addressing the current and future global health crises from Africa,” Handa stated.

Tanzania is establishing itself as a regional medical hub.

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Tanzania is emerging as a regional hub for the provision of specialised healthcare services. Dar es Salaam is quickly becoming a destination for patients referred from neighbouring countries.

President Samia Suluhu Hassan has set her sights on making Tanzania a medical tourist destination of choice, having inherited noteworthy achievements in healthcare provision over the past 60 years. President John Magufuli was the one who started talking about the need for Tanzania to tap into the $72 billion-a-year global medical tourism sector in February 2020.

President Hassan pushed the idea even further when she took over. Dr Dorothy Gwajima, the minister for Health, Community Development, Gender, Elderly, and Children, will unveil a medical tourism promotion team in July 2021.

Mohamed Janabi, a veteran cardiologist and executive director of the Jakaya Kikwete Cardiac Institute (JKCI), leads the team. Because JKCI already accepts patients from Comoro, Zambia, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Burundi, Rwanda, Uganda, and Kenya, the government intends to start there.

According to Dr. Gwajima, the government has submitted an application to the World Health Organization (WHO) for Tanzania to be recognised as a medical tourism hub.

More investments needed

Medical tourism’s viability will be determined by Tanzania’s investments in medical human skills development, telemedicine, the digital economy, transportation infrastructure, lodging facilities, health service price affordability, and customer service makeover, among other things.

According to analysts, there is no way around creating a favourable investment climate and a conducive business environment to facilitate the establishment of medical facilities, pharmaceutical and medical equipment manufacturing, and investments in research and development. Following the adoption of the Arusha Declaration in 1967, Tanzania passed the Private Hospitals Regulation Act in 1977, which outlawed private for-profit healthcare providers. This Act was repealed in the 1980s, but investors would need assurance that nothing similar would happen again. However, Tanzania’s medical tourism ambitions are realistic at this point, given that the government has partially reversed its policy of exporting medical tourists to India and other countries.

Dr. Gwajima said in a report on Tanzania’s health sector’s 60th anniversary, which she presented to reporters on Monday, November 8, that in the fiscal year 2020/21, only two patients were referred to hospitals outside the country, compared to 554 in the fiscal year 2015/16. Obviously, the Covid-19 pandemic, which caused global travel bans in most countries and put a significant strain on healthcare services in every country on the planet, contributed to this very small number of patients being referred to more specialised medical treatment outside the country. What is clear is that the number of patients has been declining since 2016, when the government’s efforts to purchase more specialised diagnostic machines and equipment gained traction. According to statistics provided by the then-minister for Health, Community Development, Gender, Children, and the Elderly, Ummy Mwalimu, the number of patients seeking treatment outside the country fell to 350 in 2018 from 550 in 2016.

Future plans

To strengthen Tanzania’s role as a medical hub, the government is installing software programmes in hospitals and improving performance merits through scorecards to overhaul service delivery and professionalism among the country’s healthcare professionals.

When introducing the medical tourism team, Dr. Gwajima emphasised the importance of taking customer service to the next level in order to attract as many patients from outside the country as possible.

The government is also building seven regional hospitals for the new regions (Njombe, Songwe, Simiyu, Geita, Manyara, Songwe, and Mara – Kwangwa), as well as expanding some of the existing hospitals and establishing new departments and services. The government is currently constructing medical oxygen production plants in seven regional referral hospitals (Geita, Manyara, Dodoma, Dar es Salaam-Amana, Mtwara, Ruvuma-Songea, Mbeya).

BioNTech Signs Deal with Senegal, Rwanda to Produce mRNA Vaccines

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Senegal and Rwanda have agreed to build the firm’s first start-to-finish factories to create messenger RNA (mRNA) vaccines in Africa, according to the Associated Press. BioNTech is a German company that was one of the pioneers in the development of a COVID-19 vaccine (AP).

Construction will begin in mid-2022, according to BioNTech, which created the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine. The company is collaborating with the Rwandan government and the Institute Pasteur in Dakar.

According to the Washington Post, the innovative mRNA technique employs the genetic coding for the Coronavirus spike protein and is anticipated to elicit a stronger immune response than standard immunizations. Scientists intend to employ the technology, which is easier to scale up than traditional vaccine processes, to develop vaccines for other diseases, such as malaria.

“State-of-the-art facilities like this will be life savers and game changers for Africa,” said Matshidiso Moeti, WHO Regional Director for Africa. “They could lead to millions of cutting-edge vaccinations being created for Africans, by Africans, in Africa.” “This is also critical for the transfer of information and know-how, the creation of new jobs and skills, and, eventually, the strengthening of Africa’s health security.”

“To research vaccines in the African Union and to establish sustainable vaccine production capacities to collaboratively improve medical care in Africa,” says Ugur Sahin, BioNTech’s co-founder and CEO.

Meanwhile, the fact that Rwanda and Senegal are the only two Sub-Saharan African countries working together on this groundbreaking effort is no coincidence. For many years, Rwanda has worked to establish itself as a regional knowledge-based ICT centre, investing heavily in research and R&D capabilities.

Pfizer, the world’s largest pharmaceutical company, recently signed a memorandum of intent with the Biovac Institute for the production of 100 million doses per year. The agreement covers the bulk importation of the drug material, the filling of vials, and the product’s distribution across Africa and elsewhere. The current agreement between Senegal and Rwanda is critical for Africa’s collective fight against COVID-19 because of the small number of nations in Sub-Saharan Africa with the technological competence to make vaccines.

The BioNTech plan calls for the development of a containerized manufacturing unit in Germany, which will then be sent to Rwanda, cutting the time it takes to build a vaccination factory by at least a year and lowering the chance of delays. While BioNTech employees will initially manage and operate the facility, ownership and expertise will eventually be handed to local operations. Based on Biovac’s experience in South Africa, this type of expertise does not currently exist in Rwanda and could take up to a decade to build. The agreement between BioNTech, Senegal, and Rwanda includes critical technology transfer in the second part of the contract, as well as an intellectual property licence agreement.

The Washington Post stated on October 26 that BioNTech plans to build a plant in Africa that will be able to produce around 50 million doses of the vaccine per year, with room for expansion. BioNTech also stated that it is in talks to expand its cooperation with Biovac, a South African vaccine maker. Biovac will construct the vaccine using BioNTech’s chemicals in a process known as “fill and finish.” The first finished doses will be produced in 2022, with an aim of manufacturing more than 100 million each year.

Healthcare Projects worth $140 million on the table in West, East Africa

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During a virtual investor roundtable, members of the Africa Investment Forum team showed two projects as the continent strives to enhance its healthcare industry and attract much-needed investment in the aftermath of the Covid-19 outbreak.

The projects, which are valued around $140 million and are located in East and West Africa, were showcased for possible investors.

The first chance, with a project cost of $96 million, is for the establishment of a 250-bed specialized hospital delivering world-class healthcare services in a West African country. The land has been obtained and feasibility assessments have been conducted.

The second involves the development of a $45 million WHO-prequalified vaccine manufacturing factory in East Africa, which will be capable of producing three vaccines on a regular basis, including Covid-19.

Following the talks, a panel of investors shared their perspectives on investing in Africa’s healthcare industry. The panelists included Rhulani Nhlaniki, Pfizer’s Sub-Saharan Africa Cluster Lead; Jean-Philippe Syed, Principal at private equity firm Development Partners International; Afsane Jetha, Managing Partner & CEO at private equity firm Alta Semper Capital; Stavros Nicolaou, Aspen Pharmacare’s Senior Executive – Strategic Trade; and Dr. Dumani Kula, Evercare Group’s Chief Operating Officer for Africa. Aubrey Hruby, Senior Fellow of the Atlantic Council’s Africa Center, moderated the discussion.

According to Nicolaou, the fact that Africa has the largest illness load of any continent makes preventative treatment, including vaccinations, all the more crucial for Africans. The increased demand for medicines will need the formation of partnerships capable of overcoming obstacles such as research and development.

Other difficulties raised by attendees included overcoming cold chain and last-mile delivery issues, as well as approaches to scale up experimental technologies such as the use of drones to aid vaccination distribution.

The Africa Investment Forum’s Unified Response to Covid-19 pillars include health as one of five priority investment areas. Agribusiness, energy and climate change, ICT/Telecoms, and industrialisation and commerce are the others.

Last week, Africa Investment Forum Senior Director Chinelo Anohu mentioned the East Africa vaccine facility idea in the context of Africa’s present restricted access to Covid-19 vaccinations at a panel discussion hosted by the University of Edinburgh. Anohu believes that the continent may prevent vaccination inequities through trade and investment, particularly in its pharmaceutical industry.

Kenya plans to build vaccine factory within six months

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Kenya intends to establish a vaccine manufacturing factory in Embakasi, Nairobi, over the next six months.

President Uhuru Kenyatta stated that the company, known as Kenya Biovax Limited, will aid in the country’s access to vaccines.

“By Easter next year, the Ministry of Health should be operationalizing this enterprise to manufacture vaccinations in our country,” he remarked during his Mashujaa Day (heroes) address.

Kenya wants to establish full-fledged vaccine production capabilities by 2024, according to the National Covid-19 Vaccine Deployment Plan.

The Covid-19 pandemic has highlighted the inadequacy of vaccine production facilities in Kenya and other African countries, leaving the region vulnerable to vaccine shortages. So yet, just around 1% of Africa’s population has been properly immunized against coronavirus.

Kenya Biovax is anticipated to be a fill-and-finish facility, where vials with vaccinations will be filled and packed for delivery. Many pharmaceutical companies outsource this final production procedure to third parties. These facilities package and deliver ready-made vaccinations.

The Nairobi facility will be erected in the Embakasi depot of the Kenya Medical Supplies Authority (Kemsa). According to the Ministry of Health, the factory will also manufacture other vaccinations such as polio drops.

Vaccine components will be imported in large quantities. The vaccinations will be manufactured, packaged in vials, labeled, and delivered at the new facility.

In May, the Health Ministry said that negotiations with Oxford AstraZeneca manufacturers were ongoing to import substantial amounts for repackaging in vials. According to the authorities, the discussions are nearly over.

The government stated that because the region is highly inhabited, the Kemsa Kitengela depot was disregarded as a potential location for the plant.

“We have gone for what we term the APIs, which are the active pharmaceutical ingredients,” said Willis Akhwale, head of the vaccines deployment group. We’ve found a partner, and we’re now under nondisclosure, so a lot of information isn’t public. We must first sign.”

US billionaire to manufacture Covid, cancer vaccines in S. Africa

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Patrick Soon-Shiong, a biotech millionaire, has announced that he will begin transferring technology to South Africa in order to manufacture Covid-19 and cancer vaccines.

In an online news conference with President Cyril Ramaphosa, the South African-born and now-US-based doctor detailed the proposal that would see coronavirus vaccine production begin next year. Within the following three months, Shiong’s business NantWorks will transfer the technology, and vaccine manufacturing is scheduled to commence in 2022.

The government’s Council for Scientific and Industrial Research, the South African Medical Research Council, and the Centre for Epidemic Response and Innovation, as well as four local institutions, according to a statement from Ramaphosa’s office.

Aside from vaccinations, the NantWorks project will focus on cell-based immunotherapies, which might lead to novel cancer treatments.

Soon-Shiong, a physician from California, described this as “a momentous event in my life; it’s been a life ambition to look at technology we can bring back home.”

“We now have the expertise and technology to manufacture vaccines in Africa,” he continued. “It is my hope and wish that Africa would benefit from this technology.”

The investment, according to Ramaphosa, is a “game changer” for South Africa.

“This collaboration will drive South Africa and Africa in general to the forefront of healthcare, research, technology, and innovation,” Ramaphosa added.

This is the third pharmaceutical manufacturing investment announced in South Africa this year, the pandemic’s worst afflicted country on the continent.

In the southern city of Gqeberha, once known as Port Elizabeth, Aspen Pharmacare is filling and packing Johnson & Johnson injections.

The World Health Organization has chosen South Africa to host an mRNA manufacturing centre, with Biovac of Cape Town completing the final “fill and finish” phase for the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine.

Rwanda Medical Supply Ltd signs $75m contract with USAID

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Rwanda Medical Supply Ltd (RMS) has secured a contract with USAID for $75 million to increase the efficiency of Rwanda’s health product supply chain.

The agreement was inked on September 3 and is scheduled to last for five years.

The “Transforming Rwanda Medical Supply Chain (TRMS)” initiative will act as the principal vehicle for procuring and delivering health commodities to end users.

The first phase will focus on providing HIV/AIDS goods, followed by Malaria, Family Planning, Maternal and Child Health items, and other health commodities.

RMS is scheduled to acquire over 350,000 multi-month supply bottles of the very effective HIV treatment medication as one of the first operations financed under this contract.

Dr. Daniel Ngamije, Minister of Health, stated that the initiative seeks to enhance RMS’s planning and management skills.

“It would boost operational efficiency, capacity to use data in decision making, and guarantee proper and timely purchase and distribution of health commodities to last mile service delivery points,” he added.

He went on to say that the first few years will be devoted to delivering HIV/AIDS goods under the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR).

The effectiveness of the country’s pharmaceutical supply chain, despite the fact that it is a complicated industry, impressed the USAID Rwanda Mission Director, Jonathan Kamin.

“This is noteworthy for Rwanda, a supply chain performance leader on the continent, because it is now the beneficiary of one of the largest direct commodity procurement contracts with a local supply chain organization from USAID.”

“Direct collaboration with capable local organizations is critical to USAID’s objective of strengthening local self-sufficiency.” Kamin made a comment.

According to Pie Harerimana, CEO of RMS, this fund would address the issue of capacity building by allocating funds to teach staff to operate properly.

He went on to say that the initiatives are intended to address operational inefficiencies, long procurement procedures, inventory management gaps, and inadequate order fulfilment rates, among other things.

The formation of RMS Ltd was a government of Rwanda initiative aimed at strengthening the pharmaceutical supply chain system with the ultimate goal of ensuring the availability of quality medications in health facilities for the people.

Ethiopia gets 108,000 doses of COVID-19 vaccine from AVAT

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As part of the first monthly shipment of Johnson & Johnson vaccinations, the African Vaccination Acquisition Trust (AVAT) announced the arrival in Ethiopia of 108,000 vaccine doses.

AVAT is delighted to announce that, 108,000 vaccination doses of Johnson & Johnson single-shot vaccines will be shipped to Ethiopia. This is part of a total shipment of 6.4 million vaccine doses to African Union member countries in August 2021. Members who bought vaccinations through AVAT will continue to receive shipments for the foreseeable future. UNICEF provides logistics and delivery services to Member States in conjunction with the Africa Medical Supplies Platform (AMSP).

These shipments are part of a historic COVID-19 vaccine advance procurement deal signed by AVAT on March 28, 2021 for the purchase of 220 million doses of the Johnson & Johnson single-shot COVID-19 vaccine, with the option to acquire an additional 180 million doses. The agreement and the beginning of delivery represent the first time that African Union Member States have jointly acquired vaccinations to protect the African population’s health. The 400 million vaccinations obtained by AVAT are enough to immunize one-third of Africa’s population.

The deal with Johnson & Johnson was made possible by a USD 2 billion facility granted by the African Export-Import Bank (Afreximbank), which also serves as the Financial and Transaction Advisers, Guarantors, Instalment Payment Advisers, and Payment Agents. The United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (UNECA) provided technical support with the financial arrangements and the AU Ministers of Finance’s alignment.

The Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia’s Minister of Health, Lia Tadesse, hailed the delivery of the vaccinations, saying, “The acquisition of these vaccines would strengthen our national COVID-19 immunization program- in addition to helping the current COVID rollout.”

The African COVID-19 Vaccine Acquisition Task Team was established in November 2020 under the African Union chairmanship of HE President Cyril Ramaphosa, President of the Republic of South Africa, as part of the African Union’s COVID-19 Vaccine Development and Access Strategy, with the goal of vaccinating at least 60% of the African population with safe and effective vaccines.

This vaccine purchase and deployment is also backed by an innovative collaboration between the World Bank and the African Union, African Vaccine Acquisition Task Team, which aims to increase access to vaccinations across the continent.

UK Export Finance invests in Six Hospitals Project in Africa

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The UK’s export credit agency has granted its largest-ever loan to West Africa to encourage UK exports. UK Export Finance (UKEF) has agreed to lend EUR 241 million to NMS Infrastructure, a Sub-Saharan African infrastructure project developer.

The dual-tranche facility will assist NMS Infrastructure in the development of six hospitals under an export contract with the Ministry of Health and Public Hygiene of Côte d’Ivoire. The total project, at EUR 326 million, is for the design, construction, and equipment of six hospitals in Bouaké, Boundiali, Katiola, Kouto, Minignan, and Ouangolodougou.

It is envisaged that the project would provide equipped and contemporary healthcare locations that will serve over a million local inhabitants.

The funding arrangement makes use of both buyer credit and direct loans to the government of Côte d’Ivoire.

The development of the project has already commenced, with completion expected for 2024.

GKB Ventures, a boutique consultancy firm designated consultants to the Côte d’Ivoire’s Ministry of Economy and Finance, led a tender process for the project’s funding, together with an international loan syndicate.

MUFG Bank was named preferred lender and mandated lead arranger for the project’s finance after the bidding procedure ended.

The borrower’s legal adviser on the project was KSK Société d’Avocats, a law company in Abidjan, with Ashurst acting as legal advice to the lenders.

This project is a high priority for the government of Côte d’Ivoire, and procuring a commercial credit prior to the facility granted by UKEF “allowed the project to move quickly,” UKEF noted in a news statement on 5 August.

UKEF has allocated GBP 2 billion to new business support in Côte d’Ivoire.

HM Trade Commissioner for Africa Emma Wade-Smith said in a statement, “This record-breaking UKEF facility in West Africa underlines the UK government’s strong commitment to promoting sustainable economic growth throughout the African continent.”

Wade-Smith also stated that the loan “further illustrates the positive impact that UK businesses are having in Africa, working in collaboration with governments and the private sector to foster growth, investment, and job creation.” It also highlights the tremendous range of opportunities we see for UK firms wanting to grow and expand into new African markets.”

HM Ambassador to Côte d’Ivoire, HE Catherine Brooker, added that the project is critical for modernizing the country’s healthcare facilities, saying, “Thanks to the UK government’s support, through UKEF, UK companies are ideally placed to support infrastructure development in West Africa and seize the huge export potential that brings.”