Covid-19 has exposed Africa’s dependence on vaccines from abroad

Covid-19 has exposed Africa’s dependence on vaccines from abroad

UNTIL RELATIVELY recently, India had seemed to have evaded the worst impacts of covid-19. This inspired hope that Africa, with its young population, might also fare well. Yet what is happening in India is a “wake-up call for the continent”, says John Nkengasong, the director of the Africa Centres for Disease Control, a pan-African body. The calamity overseas has also brought another problem into focus: India has stopped exporting covid-19 vaccines in order to serve its own citizens, leaving Africa in a “very dicey situation”, says Dr Nkengasong.

Alarm at the lack of vaccine-making capacity on the continent has been growing for some time. South Africa has been pushing hard for a waiver on the patents on covid-19 vaccines through the World Trade Organisation. On May 5th America backed a temporary suspension.

Although Africa’s 1.3bn people offer a huge market for medicines, it imports 99% of the vaccines it uses (and 70% of its pharmaceutical products). Poor countries elsewhere such as India show that it is possible to make vaccines almost anywhere. Yet with reliable and cheap supplies from abroad, there was little incentive for Africa to make them. Since the pandemic began, that calculation has changed.