At the 2023 Grand Challenges Annual Meeting, Bill Gates, Co-chair of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, unveiled plans for new investments aimed at advancing access to mRNA research and vaccine manufacturing technology.
This initiative is designed to bolster the capacity of low- and middle-income countries (LMICs) in developing high-quality, life-saving vaccines on a large scale.
The decision to expand support for mRNA technology builds upon the foundation’s extensive experience of over two decades collaborating with vaccine manufacturers in LMICs. Recent scientific advancements have created opportunities to produce cost-effective, high-quality health tools using mRNA technology, which is considered a potential game-changer for addressing infectious diseases like tuberculosis, malaria, and Lassa fever that disproportionately affect LMICs.
Dr. Muhammad Ali Pate, Nigeria’s coordinating minister of health and social welfare, hailed this effort, stating, “Putting innovative mRNA technology in the hands of researchers and manufacturers in Africa and around the world will help ensure more people benefit from next-generation vaccines.”
The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation is allocating $40 million in funding to support Quantoom Biosciences’ low-cost mRNA research and manufacturing platform, which initially received an early-research Grand Challenges grant through its parent company, Univercells. Research institutes with vaccine manufacturing expertise, Institut Pasteur de Dakar (IPD) in Senegal and Biovac in South Africa, will each receive $5 million to acquire this technology, enabling them to develop locally relevant vaccines.
To further advance the technology and reduce costs for commercialization, the foundation is contributing $20 million to Quantoom Biosciences, ensuring that LMICs can benefit from next-generation mRNA health tools. Additionally, $10 million will be granted to other LMIC vaccine manufacturers, with the recipients yet to be named.
This new funding supplements the foundation’s prior investment of $55 million in mRNA manufacturing technology.
mRNA vaccines offer simpler research and manufacturing processes compared to traditional vaccines. By expanding access to this cutting-edge technology, countries such as Senegal and South Africa will gain greater autonomy to discover and develop affordable, high-quality vaccines for diseases aligning with their healthcare priorities.
Morena Makhoana, CEO of Biovac, affirmed the significance of this collaboration, stating, “This collaboration will help close critical gaps in access to promising mRNA vaccines against diseases that disproportionately affect the world’s poorest.”
Quantoom’s modular mRNA technology addresses common bottlenecks in current mRNA research and manufacturing technologies, simplifying processes and reducing costs. For instance, production expenses for a vaccine could decrease by over 50% using Quantoom’s platform compared to traditional mRNA technology. Moreover, it has the potential to alleviate the demand for highly specialized experts, a significant barrier to vaccine production in Africa and other regions, while maintaining or even enhancing product quality.
Trevor Mundel, president of the foundation’s Global Health Division, emphasized the importance of lowering barriers to access for LMICs, stating, “By lowering barriers to access for low- and middle-income countries, we can help ensure more people around the world benefit from lifesaving health innovation.”
José Castillo, CEO of Quantoom Biosciences, expressed enthusiasm about this partnership, saying, “We’re thrilled to partner with IPD and Biovac to scale our technology in Senegal and South Africa and help increase access to novel mRNA vaccines—one of medicine’s most promising new tools.”
This additional funding for Quantoom builds upon an initial grant awarded in 2016 to Univercells as part of the Grand Challenges initiative to seek new interventions for vaccine manufacturing. Univercells’ original vaccine manufacturing technology is set to enable IPD to commence production of essential measles and rubella vaccines, further expanding the region’s capability to conduct routine immunization campaigns.