President Muhammadu Buhari has expressed Nigeria’s readiness to become a global hub for sustainable manufacturing and distribution of vaccine and biological pharmaceuticals to support initiatives to keep all mankind safe.

In a statement, Femi Adesina, the president’s spokesman, said Mr Buhari stated this while addressing the World Bio Summit 2022 to discuss the future of vaccines and bio-health across the globe on Tuesday in Seoul, South Korea.

The Nigerian leader also called for the speedy take-off of local production of mRNA vaccines after the World Health Organization (WHO) selected Nigeria as one of six African countries to receive the technology needed to produce the vaccines.

He pledged commitment to the global response to known or emerging pathogens, including the global vaccine assurance ecosystem and equitable access for all.

He told the meeting jointly convened by the government of South Korea and WHO that Nigeria would continue to explore bilateral, multilateral and other opportunities for cutting-edge technology as a centre of excellence for vaccine manufacturing and distribution.

“As the mRNA technology allows science to shift attention to yet unknown disease threats, we see opportunities to address diseases that have plagued sub-Saharan Africa and third-world countries for centuries.

“We believe biomedical scientists can dream of ending the scourge of malaria, ebola, Lassa fever and various endemic neglected tropical diseases through the development and manufacture of efficacious and affordable vaccines and therapeutics.

“Nigeria invites partners ready to support efforts towards the entire value chain of vaccine technology development in our continent to consider working with us in Nigeria,” he said.

The president noted that ongoing conversations on the future of vaccines tend to support the decentralisation of the capacity to produce essential materials to respond globally to pandemics.

Mr Buhari expressed Nigeria’s preference for a global warehousing and supply chain strategy to attend to the needs of most countries.

According to him, Nigeria is ready and able to offer itself for this initiative due to its strategic geographical location, economic strength, and market size derived from a population of over 214 million people.

He added that Nigeria’s comparative advantage was also supported by her experience in human and animal vaccine production records since 1924 when colonial authorities produced WHO-certified smallpox, yellow fever and anti-rabies vaccines locally.

He affirmed that this technology had since been improved upon and is being used in Jos, Plateau.

According to Mr Buhari, the high quality of current academic and research work and potential in Nigeria is also noteworthy.

He also reaffirmed Nigeria’s position on equitable distribution of vaccines, citing lessons learnt from the COVID-19 pandemic and the unpleasant experiences of developing countries.

While describing the global response to the pandemic as discriminatory, the president demanded that the world must not allow serious public health failure to happen again.

Mr Buhari also recounted the efforts by his administration to mitigate the impact and curtail the spread of the virus in the country, highlighting that the positive exploits of the country were recognised and commended by the global health body.

He maintained that these concerted efforts by the government, with the support of stakeholders in the private and public agencies, mitigated the impact and curtail the spread of the virus on the nation’s health systems.

While commending the role of WHO in this regard, the president noted that the global health body continuously advocated for the equitable sharing of vaccines through the COVAX Facility and for sharing of technology through bilateral and multilateral agreements through the COVID-19 Technology Access Pool.

He recalled that when WHO announced Nigeria as one of six African countries to receive technology to produce mRNA vaccines in February 2022, Biovaccine Ltd facilitated the participation of Nigerian scientists in the ongoing vaccine production workforce training in Seoul from June 2022.

He said, ‘‘In this regard, a private pharmaceutical company to facilitate pharmaceutical production of the mRNA vaccines has been identified to pilot this project.

“While we express our appreciation, once more, to the WHO and other partners for selecting Nigeria, we would like to urge for the speedy take-off of this project in the interest of global health security.” 

(NAN)