South Korea-based International Vaccine Institute (IVI), EuBiologics, and DEK Vaccines have signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) at Ghana’s National Vaccine Institute establishing a new partnership to support the fill and finish of the EuBiologics oral cholera vaccine (OCV) in DEK’s manufacturing facilities in Ghana.
IVI, a non-profit international organisation with a mission to discover, develop, and deliver safe, effective, and affordable vaccines for global health, developed OCV and holds the intellectual property for the vaccine, transferring the technology to manufacturers around the world, especially Developing Countries Vaccine Manufacturers.
To date, IVI has or is currently transferring OCV technology to six manufacturers, including EuBiologics in the Republic of Korea who is currently the largest producer of OCV and will be the only supplier to the global health market by the end of the year.
Through this new tripartite partnership, IVI and EuBiologics plan to transfer OCV fill and finish technology to DEK, enabling domestic production, purchase, and sales of OCV. Additionally, the MoU outlines further collaborative activities including support for OCV clinical trials in Ghana and other African countries, sufficiently scaling up vaccine production capacity, and gaining regulatory approvals.
Through this technology transfer with DEK Vaccines, EuBiologics plans to help solve the cholera vaccine shortage by distributing OCV across Africa. As such, EuBiologics will supply the cholera vaccine raw material and DEK will be in charge of finalizing the vaccine, which is expected to be available by the end of 2025 or early 2026.
Notably, DEK will not supply OCV to UNICEF, but directly to government health agencies in Ghana and neighboring African countries. Consequently, this does not impact EuBiologics’ existing supply markets which include its supply to UNICEF.
Additionally, IVI will support both companies in the completion process and scale-up production by providing knowledge and technology transfer training to build and strengthen local vaccine manufacturing capacity. IVI will also lend experience to help coordinate with regulatory authorities for the necessary licensing procedures.
DEK Vaccines, a specialized vaccine manufacturing company, was established in 2021 by Kinapharma, a major Ghanaian pharmaceutical company, to secure vaccine sovereignty through the establishment of a vaccine production facility in Ghana.
“We believe that this cholera vaccine technology transfer is a meaningful contribution to public health in the African region,” said a EuBiologics company official. “It will also generate revenue through the supply of raw materials and the technology transfer milestones from the finished vaccine product.”
SOURCES: BioSpectrum & KoreaBioMed
