African Export-Import Bank (Afreximbank) and the Africa Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (Africa CDC) have renewed their partnership with a new cooperation agreement under which Afreximbank has committed a $2-billion facility to the Africa Health Security Investment Plan to support health product manufacturing.  

The African Union has a goal of manufacturing 60% of vaccines needed locally by the year 2040 as well as implementing other countermeasures necessary to ensure self-reliance, especially during crises such as pandemics and outbreaks. 

This initiative will focus on the African Pooled Procurement Mechanism, an initiative to lower the cost of pharmaceutical products in Africa, and the Platform for Harmonized African Health Products Manufacturing, a group aimed at assisting ongoing manufacturing projects. 

The agreement intends to complement the financing mechanism, the African Vaccine Manufacturing Accelerator, under Gavi, a global health public-private partnership, which is set to provide up to $1 billion in financing to African manufacturers of health and pharmaceutical products over the next 10 years. 

Source: Africa CDC