IAVI, Minapharm, & ProBioGen Launch Vaccine & Biologics Manufacturing Partnership in Africa

IAVI, a nonprofit research organization, has entered a strategic alliance with Cairo-based biosimilars manufacturer Minapharm and Berlin-based contract development and manufacturing firm ProBioGen to expand vaccine and biologics production in Africa.

The partnership aims to address the continent’s limited vaccine output—currently estimated at just 1% of its needs—by strengthening local innovation and manufacturing capabilities. The initiative will focus initially on developing a vaccine for Mpox using ProBioGen’s Modified Vaccinia Ankara (MVA) platform, with optimization efforts targeting cost, immunogenicity, and delivery efficiency.

The collaboration also seeks to expand regional production of monoclonal antibodies (mAbs), including those for HIV prevention, through technology transfer from IAVI and leveraging Minapharm’s existing mAb manufacturing infrastructure. The effort is supported by the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention, the Wellcome Trust, and the kENUP Africa Foundation.

“We are thrilled to launch this new partnership with Minapharm and ProBioGen, which represents a potentially transformative opportunity to accelerate the development of urgently needed innovations to address diseases with devastating and disproportionate impact in Africa,” said Mark Feinberg, M.D., Ph.D., IAVI’s President and CEO. “This pioneering collaboration will ensure access to cutting-edge innovations like antibodies for HIV prevention and innovative vaccine strategies for emerging infectious diseases such as Mpox – by expanding the capacity to research, develop, and produce those products in the region where they are most needed.”

“By combining our decades of expertise in end-to-end biomanufacturing on the continent, with ProBioGen’s bioprocessing excellence, and IAVI’s strong global product development leadership, we are creating an intercontinental scientific platform to scale innovation and ensure equitable access to innovative therapies and vaccines for Africa,” said Dr. Shaheer Bardissi, Ph.D., Co-CEO, Minapharm Pharmaceuticals.

“It has always been our vision to enable access to complex biologics in the MEA region while strengthening regional and local manufacturing capabilities. We are proud to contribute our expertise as well as our vaccine and antibody manufacturing technologies to this alliance and to support exactly where it matters most,” added Dr. Volker Sandig, M.D., Chief Scientific Officer at ProBioGen.