Charles Abugre, a member of the programme advisory committee Christian Aid has emphasised the need for vaccine justice in Africa.
He said the move will not only allow Africa to produce its vaccines but also retain every dollar spent on buying, transporting and storing vaccines from richer countries.
Speaking as a panellist at the Kusi Ideas Festival in Accra Friday (10 December), Abugre said, “Africa was scrambling for vaccines, Africa needs a minimum of 1.5 billion of dozes. When you get it, you are paying far more than it costs a rich country, to buy it, storage, travel, transport altogether and a minimum of US$10 a dose.”
“One recognises the needs of the pharmaceutical companies, AstraZeneca to make a return for their shareholders but there must be a limit so some of the companies are already making billion dollars. They have a captured market for a long time to come. It makes no sense.”
The panellist also slammed the West over the current vaccine politics, which they said was a repeat of the 1990s’ HIV/AIDS ARVs access fight.
“This is more or less like a repeat of our struggles of HIV/Aids drugs and other retroviral drugs. It took an almighty public campaign. All over the place, led by civil society org to make it unacceptable to not to die down the cost and allow Indians to produce generics. There is a need for vaccine justice, not just the ability to manufacture them but it is also the need at this point for Africa in particular to retain every dollar,” Abugre said.
Cost of vaccine acquisition
Abugre, lamented the cost of vaccine acquisition for the continent, terming it as unsustainable.
“We are paying far more for the vaccines than the rich countries. At US$10 a dose, that’s too much for the continent to bear. This is despite the huge public costs that went into the vaccines,” Abugre said.
He added; “We recognise the need for the vaccine manufacturers to make a return for investment but there must be a limit. Vaccines economics demand that we must aggressively support the governments that seek to manufacture vaccines to make them affordable.”
“As we can now see, there is vaccine apartheid against Africa and we need vaccine justice. At this point, we need to retain every dollar to invest within the continent. And that’s why we must ask for low vaccination costs,” Abugre said, adding that “western countries have failed to live up to their promise. We were told no one is safe until we all are fully vaccinated. And yet we see vaccine hoarding and this puts us in a bad position. How then do we achieve the numbers when we don’t have the support to access vaccines?”
Beverley Andoh
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