IAVI, Minapharm and ProBioGen have enetered into a partnership to advance the end-to-end development and manufacturing of priority vaccines and biologics in Africa.

With only one percent of the vaccines serving the African market produced on the continent, there is a pressing need to strengthen innovation and expand local manufacturing capacities to better meet the region’s health challenges. Through a novel public-private partnership, these three organisations will work together to bolster the innovation ecosystem on the continent and enable sustainable access to urgently-needed products.

The partners will leverage their complementary strengths to accelerate the development of ProBioGen´s Modified Vaccinia Ankara as a vaccine against Mpox. The vaccine is being optimised for manufacturing productivity, immunogenicity and ease of delivery, with the aim of overcoming cost, supply and implementation barriers that have severely restricted access in regions most impacted by recent Mpox outbreaks.

“We are thrilled to launch this new partnership with Minapharm and ProBioGen, which represents a potentially transformative opportunity to accelerate the development of urgently needed innovations to address diseases with devastating and disproportionate impact in Africa. “This pioneering collaboration will ensure access to cutting-edge innovations like antibodies for HIV prevention and innovative vaccine strategies for emerging infectious diseases such as Mpox–by expanding the capacity to research, develop and produce those products in the region where they are most needed,” said Mark Feinberg, MD, PhD, President and CEO, IAVI.

This initiative will be enabled through technology transfer of IAVI’s portfolio of antibody-based products for HIV prevention, combined with joint capacity-strengthening, market-shaping efforts and future collaborations to expand access to a broader range of monoclonal and multi-specific antibodies.

 “By combining our decades of expertise in end-to-end biomanufacturing on the continent, with ProBioGen’s bioprocessing excellence, and IAVI’s strong global product development leadership, we are creating an inter-continental scientific platform to scale innovation and ensure equitable access to innovative therapies and vaccines for Africa,” said Dr Shaheer Bardissi, PhD, Co-CEO, Minapharm Pharmaceuticals.

By expanding regionally driven innovation and supply for priority products, this partnership—which has been convened with support by the kENUP Africa Foundation–will strengthen health security, bolster production capacity, and enable rapid response capabilities to address leading infectious diseases at their source.

“It has always been our vision to enable access to complex biologics in the MEA region while strengthening regional and local manufacturing capabilities. We are proud to contribute our expertise as well as our vaccine and antibody manufacturing technologies to this alliance and to support exactly where it matters the most,” said Dr Volker Sandig, MD, Chief Scientific Officer, ProBioGen.

The three organisations will join forces to further expand the existing regional manufacturing hub for affordable mAbs. The partnership relies on IAVI’s collaboration with the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention, the Wellcome Trust and other partners.

“Africa continues to face significant challenges in accessing monoclonal antibodies due to the lack of affordable, equitable and sustainable supply. This partnership represents an important step forward in expanding access to mAbs and vaccines for the African continent. Africa CDC stands ready to support member states in accessing these products through the African Pooled Procurement Mechanism (APPM),” said HE Dr Jean Kaseya, Director-General, the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (Africa CDC).