While European companies, including BioNTech, are focused on increasing vaccine access to African countries by setting up vaccine manufacturing facilities, the European Union is looking westward to Latin America and the Caribbean.
Speaking at a press conference with Spanish Prime Minister Pédro Sanchez, president of the EU Commission Ursula von der Leyen said that the EU is launching a new initiative for vaccines and medicines manufacturing in Latin America, to get to drugs to Latin America and the Caribbean faster.
“We have learned during the Covid-19 pandemic that we can rely on each other. The European Union is the world’s largest exporter of Covid-19 vaccines. For instance, we shipped 237 million doses to Latin American and Caribbean countries, and we are also together with a leading donor. The European Union donated 475 million doses to our partners across the world,” von der Leyen said at the conference.
However, in order to prepare for future pandemics many countries must ramp up their capacity to manufacture and administer vaccines, she said.
The health partnership that the EU is launching will contain three building blocks to create more resilient health systems in Latin America and the Caribbean.
“The first one is we want to get the private sector from both sides into the game,” she said. “We will need significant investments to strengthen the vaccine manufacturing capacities and supply chains. And this is why we will organize match-making events between the European Union and Latin American businesses starting this autumn so that they get to know each other, and we are working together on new financial mechanisms of course to support these investments in health and pharmaceuticals in the region.”
The second step is about sharing technologies and knowledge, as the EU will look to build bridges between regional universities, research centers and scientists.
For example, von der Leyen said that they will work together under Horizon Europe, a major research funding program, to act as a bridge between the researchers and the universities from both sides and joint health research projects supported by funds from the EU.
The third pillar relates to the manufacturing of vaccines, as von der Leyen said that the EU will step up our cooperation between their different agencies such as the EMA, the ECDC and CARA to link with partners in Latin America for a more streamlined regulatory process for vaccines produced in the region.
The partnership is being financially supported by partners including the Inter-American Development Bank, with Team Europe investing 890 million euros ($935 million) in health projects in Latin America and the Caribbean. This includes contributions from actors such as the Spanish Agency for International Cooperation and Development, with more support to come on board in the future, von der Leyen said.
The EU is also defining financial support to the biotech sector in Cuba and Mexico, as well as exploring options for support in Chile, Costa Rica, Uruguay and Colombia.
However, at the conference, no strict timeline was given for when these initiatives take off.
