Nigeria Strikes Deal With India to Build Vaccine Plant as Delhi Deepens Africa Ties

India is an important source of Africa’s pharma imports, and the potential for boosting ties in this sphere increased amid the COVID-19 pandemic. Now Delhi is apparently looking to become the region’s biggest partner, on par with China.

Nigerian pharma company Biovaccines Nigeria has signed an agreement with the world’s biggest vaccine manufacturer the Serum Institute of India (SII) for local production of "routine" vaccines against polio, measles, and yellow fever, among others, by 2028.

Nigerian Health Minister Osagie Ehanire told reporters on Wednesday that Biovaccines Nigeria, a joint venture between the federal government and May & Baker Nigeria Plc, will start building a vaccine plant outside the country's commercial center Lagos by the end of this year.

In August, the SII signed a deal with South Africa's Aspen Pharmacare to supply heavy drugs to make four routine pediatric vaccines widely needed in Africa.

The deal turned out to be a savior for Aspen Pharmacare, which, in collaboration with Johnson & Johnson (J&J), started Africa’s only 450-million-dose vaccine production line to produce and market the single-dose vaccine Aspenovax, which was on the verge of shutting down due to a lack of orders, at a time when the nation was facing its fifth wave of the coronavirus pandemic.

Meanwhile, Africa remains the world's least vaccinated region against COVID-19, as less than 20% of its 1.2 billion people have received a booster, according to the latest data available.