EIB Backs Akagera with €2M to Develop Vaccine Manufacturing in Rwanda

On the sidelines of the World Health Summit in Berlin on 14 October 2024, the European Investment Bank (EIB) announced that it will finance Akagera Medicines Africa Limited to the tune of EUR 2 million to support the early-stage development of vaccine to treat HIV, Tuberculosis, Ebola and other diseases prevalent Africa. The financing will go towards reinforcing the technical skills required for drug discovery, mass production and delivery.

The move is part of the wider EU Global Gateway Initiative (#GGI) which has as one of its objective the improvement of public health and equitable access to drugs in Africa. It is to be noted that Africa bears the highest disease burden around the world and access to vaccine became an acute issue during the COVID pandemic. Universal healthcare is embedded in 14 of the 17 UN #SDG.

Akagera was created in July 2018 and is registered as a Delaware corporation. It is majority-owned by the Government of Rwanda through the Rwanda Social Security Board (RSSB). Despite being a new outfit, Akagera has laboratories in Boston and San Francisco and has enjoyed some success in developing medical formulations for tuberculosis, influenza, avian flu, RSV and HIV.

Founding board members include Dr Albrecht Conze, Dr Paul Farmer, Dr Donald Kaberuka. Dr Dary Drummond and Dr Dimitri Kirpotin adapted their drug delivery system from oncology to tropical infectious diseases.

The financing is delivered via EIB Global which is EIB Group’s arm specializing in impact and development finance in the context of international partnerships. EIB is a key partner of GGI which aims to provide EUR 100 billion of investment to Africa by 2027. The amount represents one-third of GGI target of EUR 300 billion. EIB will work alongside other DFI, Team Europe , civil society and focused partners which are in line with EU policy goals.