African Fund Pledges $3bn For Vaccine Self-sufficiency

The Africa Development Bank has pledged that $3bn will be invested over the next 10 years to end vaccine dependency across the continent. <br />The plan includes a new pharmaceutical centre for research, development and manufacturing based in Rwanda's capital, Kigali. <br />AfDB says it will also help patent and license African-made medicines, and support governments to navigate the intellectual property rights to global vaccines and medicines. <br />AfDB says Africa currently imports more than 70% of all its medicines, spending about $14bn every year.