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Gates Foundation announces $40 million for mRNA vaccine expansion in Senegal, South Africa
The investment will help spur the development of mRNA vaccines in low and middle income countries through a low-cost alternative platform.
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Employees in cleanroom suits test manufacturing procedures for messenger RNA (mRNA) for the COVID-19 vaccine on March 27, 2021, at the new manufacturing site of German company BioNTech in Marburg, central Germany. German firm BioNTech said on March 30, 2021, that it was on track to manufacture 2.5 billion doses of its COVID-19 vaccine this year with US partner Pfizer, 25 percent more than previously expected. (AFP/Thomas Lohnes)
T
he Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation unveiled on Monday new investments to advance access to mRNA research and vaccine manufacturing technology that will support the capacity of low- and middle-income countries to develop high-quality, life-saving vaccines at scale.
“Today, our foundation is announcing US$40 million to scale up local mRNA vaccine manufacturing,” foundation co-chair Bill Gates said during the opening plenary of the Grand Challenges Annual Meeting 2023 at the Centre International de Conferences Abdou Diouf (CICAD) in Dakar on Monday.
“We are supporting the company Quantoom Biosciences to help it finish developing its breakthrough, low-cost mRNA platform. And we are supporting Biovac in South Africa and IPD [Institut Pasteur of Dakar] here in Senegal to acquire the technology and start making mRNA vaccines.”
The Quantoom Biosciences’ low-cost, mRNA research and manufacturing platform was developed with an early research Grand Challenges grant made to its parent company, Univercells.
Gates said the idea behind Quantoom and Univercells was to supplement expensive, centralized vaccine manufacturing infrastructure with small-footprint facilities spread around the world.
“This is especially important for local diseases, like Lassa fever here in West Africa, that will always be overlooked by big companies,” he said. “Having the ability to manufacture vaccines should incentivize scientists to discover and develop vaccines for locally relevant diseases.”
Read also: Southern hemisphere to get first mRNA vaccine facility
