The African Vaccine Manufacturing Accelerator 'will be an essential step towards a genuine African vaccine market,' French President Emmanuel Macron said at the opening of the summit in the Paris.Three quarters of this funding will come from Europe, Macron told the summit, which was also attended by leaders from Botswana, Rwanda, Senegal, Ghana, as well as visiting ministers, health groups and pharmaceutical firms.
A recent resurgence of cholera in many parts of Africa has highlighted the need for more local vaccine producers. Only one firm in the world — South Korea's EuBiologics — makes the cheap and effective vaccine doses for the deadly disease.Macron called for cholera to be 'consigned to the past,' adding that outbreaks were now affecting 'half of Africa.