𝗥𝗲𝗰𝗼𝗴𝗻𝗶𝘇𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗰𝗵𝗮𝗹𝗹𝗲𝗻𝗴𝗲 𝗼𝗳 𝘃𝗮𝗰𝗰𝗶𝗻𝗲 𝗶𝗻𝗲𝗾𝘂𝗶𝘁𝘆 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝗰𝗼𝗻𝘀𝗲𝗾𝘂𝗲𝗻𝘁 𝗽𝘂𝗯𝗹𝗶𝗰 𝗵𝗲𝗮𝗹𝘁𝗵 𝗻𝗲𝗲𝗱 𝗳𝗼𝗿 𝘄𝗼𝗿𝗸𝗳𝗼𝗿𝗰𝗲 𝗰𝗮𝗽𝗮𝗰𝗶𝘁𝘆 𝗯𝘂𝗶𝗹𝗱𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗶𝗻 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝘃𝗮𝗰𝗰𝗶𝗻𝗲 𝗺𝗮𝗻𝘂𝗳𝗮𝗰𝘁𝘂𝗿𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝘀𝗽𝗮𝗰𝗲 𝗶𝗻 𝗟𝗜𝗖𝘀 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝗟𝗠𝗜𝗖𝘀, our CEO, Rajinder Suri envisioned the creation of an elite team of professionals from within leading DCVMN member companies to form two specialty groups of SMEs i.e. Quality by Design (QbD) and Manufacturing Science Group (MSG) to be imparted specialized training by experts on each subject. In turn, they would train the manufacturing staff on QbD and MSG for emerging manufacturers with a focus on Africa realizing the potential benefits of collaboration between Africa CDC and DCVMN in helping the AU achieve its goal of enabling the African manufacturing industry to develop, produce, and supply over 60% of the total vaccine doses required on the continent by 2040.
To realize this vision, Mr. Suri reached out to the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and PATH for funding support. After securing this, the same approached Mr. Jaap Koster, CEO and Senior Consultant, PCS – Pharmaceutical Consultancy Services – GMP & GDP Consultancy, Training, Audits and Software, based in the Netherlands, and Dr. Baley Reeves, Director, National Center for Therapeutics Manufacturing (NCTM) | Texas A&M Engineering Experiment Station (TEES), for the technical expertise on QbD and MSG respectively. Both of them were extremely helpful and assured full support. Jaap and Doutje from PCS, and Baley from TEES were joined by Amanda Zehnder, Senior Organization Development and Change Management Advisor – CVIA, PATH, who offered the IDD (Instructional Design Delivery) to enrich the program duly supported by Menka Sharma from DCVMN.
The three-day program was organized by Prerna Kumar and Myna Pandya from DCVMN in Dubai from Oct 2-4. The intensive workshop included expert presentations, discussions, debates and interactions leading to cross-fertilization of ideas and bringing out a clearly defined road map and training program for the budding aspirants in QbD and MSG.
Mr. Rajinder Suri said in his closing remarks that this is just the beginning of a long journey towards self-sufficiency and vaccine equity in LICs and LMICs. He added that as a next step, he intends to collaborate with World Health Organization, CEPI (Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations), Africa CDC, Pan American Health Organization and RVMC to extend the benefits of this specialized course to the most deserving candidates engaged in vaccine manufacturing and capacity building in Africa and LATAM.
