Selected Vaccine Localization Case Studies

 

Whether you are a national government, funder, or manufacturer, I help bring the clarity needed to confidently navigate the key decisions and challenges you face while planning to establish or expand sustainable local vaccine manufacturing in Low and Middle-Income Countries (LMICs).

 

Are you facing roadblocks to establishing the production of vaccines in your country? Maybe you are a manufacturer

looking to establish or expand the production of vaccines for your country. Or a country/region looking to safeguard your

people against future pandemics or neglected endemic diseases. Or possibly an investor or donor providing the funding to achieve these?

 

For 20 years, I’ve helped clients such as Merck, Sharp and Dohme (MSD), InterAmerican Development Bank, WHO, Africa Centers for Disease Control and others to evaluate, develop and implement plans to sustainably manufacture life-saving vaccines around the world. My experience of designing, constructing and operating vaccine manufacturing facilities for some of the world’s biggest firms, has enabled me to support or lead various projects to increase the production of vaccines in LMICs:

 

• At MSD, I worked on 5 vaccine localization business deals in LMICs with a total facility capital expenditure exceeding $100M and a gross Net Present Value (NPV) from additional sales exceeding $220M. This included determining the facility modification costing and staffing required, conducting technical due diligence evaluations on the prospective manufacturing partners, and providing key manufacturing and technical input into the business deal terms and contracts. This resulted in 3 of the deals being signed.

 

• At the Serbian government's request, I have supported sustainable local vaccine production in Serbia at the state-owned Torlak Insitut. Prior to Covid, I recommended ways to strengthen Serbia’s pandemic preparedness with targeted support for Torlak to better enable it to produce pandemic response vaccines. To further strengthen Torlak’s manufacturing capabilities after Covid, I identified various high ROI manufacturing opportunities for the 80+-year-old Institut in ways that align with Serbia’s plans to transform itself into a global Biotech Hub.

 

• Amidst the global scramble for Covid Vaccines, the Philippines Department of Health needed to determine if the decade-old Vaccine Self-Reliance Program (VSRP), which was evaluating how to establish local vaccine manufacturing, was the best way to supply the country with Covid Vaccines. Our team, assembled by the Asian Development Bank, quickly clarified the most efficient means to supply the country with Covid vaccines and detailed what would be needed to establish a sustainable manufacturing industry in the long term.

 

• In the wake of Covid, the 8 South American countries comprising PROSUR sought to build a regional manufacturing network to serve them collectively in future pandemics with funding from the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB). A group of experts and I helped PROSUR and IDB define what this collaboration may look like, how best to pursue it, and what would be required from each country.

 

• In 2021, the African Union (AU) launched the Partnership for African Vaccine Manufacturing (PAVM) to progress and harmonize Africa's vaccine manufacturing efforts to reduce the unparalleled vaccine. While working for PAVM, I built relationships with more than 20 African vaccine manufacturing projects. This enabled me to lead a cross-functional team to gather the information needed to hone plans by AU, GAVI and UNICEF to increase the procurement of African-made vaccines, including up to $1B in additional procurement funding from GAVI to create a level playing field with incumbent suppliers.

 

If you are looking for an effective way to chart a course through political, technical, financial or stakeholder alignment

roadblocks to determine how to achieve your goal of producing vaccines locally, let's discuss your situation. My email

is Khoward@nrlsolutions.com.