International Vaccine Institute will launch a new Country and Project Office in Kenya to serve as the headquarters for IVI’s Advancing Vaccine End-to-End Capabilities (AVEC) initiative in Africa. The office will work closely alongside the Kenya BioVax Institute Limited and other local partners.
The IVI AVEC Project Office in Kenya will act as the central hub for vaccine research and development and support local manufacturing within the African continent. The office will collaborate closely with the IVI Rwanda Office, focusing on enhancing IVI’s regional administrative capacities. The AVEC Africa initiative aims to strengthen the vaccine ecosystem in Africa through public-private partnerships and practical training, thus ensuring sustainable vaccine manufacturing.
While welcoming this significant milestone, Dr. Michael Lusiola, the MD/CEO, Kenya BioVax Institute, stated that, “The setting up of the IVI AVEC Project Office in Kenya will go a long way in supporting the establishment of local vaccine manufacturing capabilities here at BioVax. In addition, the collaboration envisaged between the IVI AVEC Office in Kenya, whose focus will be on the vaccine R&D activities across the continent, and the IVI Regional Office in Rwanda will ensure a coordinated effort towards achieving the Africa CDC‘s targets of vaccine self-sufficiency by the year 2040″.
The opening of the IVI AVEC Project Office in Kenya directly resulted from a high-level AU side-event breakfast meeting on ‘Sustainable Vaccine Manufacturing through End-to-End Vaccine Research & Development Projects in Africa’. This meeting was led by H.E., the President of the Republic of Kenya, Dr. William Ruto.
As an institute, we would like to extend our heartfelt gratitude to the The Ministry of Health under the leadership of Hon. Susan Nakhumicha for their unwavering support throughout this journey.