Against the production of vaccines against Covid-19 in Senegal. An agreement was signed on Friday 9 July with several partners, European countries, the World Bank and the United States, to finance the first phase of the project. A factory that should start production in 2022, when Africa now imports 99% of its vaccine needs.
as reported from Dakar, Charlotte idrac
The factory will emerge from the ground in the new city of Diamniadio and eventually produce 300 million doses per year. Covid-19 vaccines first – the choice has not yet been defined – then other types of vaccines against endemic diseases. The project was carried out by the Pasteur Institute in Dakar, which already produces the yellow fever vaccine. Its director general, Dr. Amadou Sall, talks about a “historic” day.
“By 2022, our goal is to start with aseptic filling and then continue with the production of ‘vaccine pulp’,” says Amadou Sall.
The total estimated cost of the project is EUR 200 million. According to Economy Minister Amadou Hott, 14 million, in the form of donations, have already been mobilized. The next financing phases have not yet been completed. Goal: to reduce the continent’s dependence on the outside world.
Less than 2% of all Africans are fully vaccinated
“Senegal will be a producer and also an exporter of anti-Covid vaccines around a platform that will also enable us to produce other vaccines that Senegal and Africa will need to truly achieve self-sufficiency or pharmaceutical sovereignty, sovereignty sanitation”, emphasizes Amadou Hott.
An agreement signed while Senegal, like other countries on the continent, is facing a peak in contamination and lack of doses. According to the WHO, less than 2% of Africans are fully vaccinated.
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