Kenya Medical Research Institute (KEMRI) and Kenya Biovax Institute signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to expand vaccine production, supply security, and capacity building in Kenya.Â
The goal of the Institute is to improve human health and quality of life via research, capacity development, and service provision.
As a long-term strategy to guarantee Kenya becomes self-sufficient in its vaccine and to strengthen supply security, the MoU enables KEMRI and KBI to collaborate in research and manufacture of human vaccines.
The agreement is in keeping with the government’s plan of developing the economic pillar of local manufacture and the development goal of Universal Health Coverage (UHC), KEMRI Ag Prof. Elijah Songok said during the signing ceremony.
Dr. Abdullahi Ali, Chairman of the KEMRI Board of Directors, expressed his appreciation for the partnership and noted that the government is making every effort to ensure that the nation is able to develop and produce its own vaccines in light of the COVID-19 outbreak and the fact that African nations were not given priority access to COVID-19 vaccines.
Kenya urgently needs to be autonomous because GAVI (Global Vaccine Initiative), the organisation that has helped Kenya and other nations get affordable vaccines for their immunisation programmes, will stop financing them as of 2027.
According to the MoU, KEMRI will advise Biovax technically on prospective health product and technology production in response to anticipated epidemics and pandemics and facilitate opportunities for technical and operational knowledge exchange and capacity building.
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