Should Kazuria Produce Vaccines Locally with Unizima’s Support? Vaccine Manufacturing Capacity in Africa

New technological developments in biotechnology are creating new opportunities for less centralized production and distribution of biological medicines, including vaccines. This case explores how innovative small-scale production technologies in biotech enable more flexible production of vaccines and other biologic medicines in low- or middle-income countries (LMICs) and neighboring countries. The importance of the local sustainability of the health industry was highlighted by the COVID-19 pandemic. This case allows for discussion of the development and expansion of biomedical production in LMICs, as well as assessing the role of agility in capacity planning and procurement decisions for vaccines.

This case can be used to support discussions about: (i) stakeholders in public health and capacity development in low- and middle-income countries, using the case of a fictitious country in Africa as an example; (ii) the role of innovations in biotechnology manufacturing to enable new business models with smaller, more agile production capacity; (iii) the benefits of reactive capacity in a newsvendor model inventory setting.