Gates Foundation investing $40M to help African manufacturers produce mRNA vaccines

The Gates Foundation announced Monday it will invest $40 million in several African manufacturers to produce and provide access to mRNA vaccines on the continent. 

In a release, the foundation said the initiative will build on lessons learned from 20 years of working with vaccine manufacturers to “leverage recent scientific advances to develop low-cost, high-quality health tools that reach more people around the world.” 

The $40 million investment will advance a research platform from Quantoom Biosciences that was developed with an early-research Grand Challenges grant made to its parent company, Univercells. 

Experts see mRNA technology, which was at the center of COVID-19 vaccine production by Pfizer and Moderna during the pandemic, as a potential game-changer for a range of infectious diseases that affect people in impoverished countries. 

African-based vaccine manufacturers Institut Pasteur de Dakar (IPD) and Biovac will receive $5 million each in funding from the foundation, while $10 million will be distributed to other manufacturing companies yet to be identified, according to the release. 

Quantoom Biosciences will receive $20 million from the foundation to ensure low- and middle-income countries “can benefit from the next-generation mRNA health tools.” 

“Putting innovative mRNA technology in the hands of researchers and manufacturers in Africa and around the world will help ensure more people benefit from next-generation vaccines,” Nigeria’s coordinating minister of health and social welfare and a global expert on vaccines Dr. Muhammad Ali Pate said in a statement. 

“This collaboration is an encouraging step that will increase access to critical health technologies and help African countries develop vaccines that meet the needs of their people.”

The announcement comes as the foundation launched its three-day Grand Challenges event, an annual meeting that brings together public researchers and scientists from around the world. 

The Gates Foundation, founded in 2000 by Bill Gates and his then-wife, Melinda Gates, is a nonprofit foundation that focuses its efforts on fighting poverty, disease, and inequality around the world.