The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation is providing $40m in funding to advance the accessibility of Quantoom Biosciences’ affordable mRNA vaccine research and manufacturing platform.

The platform was developed with an early-research Grand Challenges grant awarded to its parent company, Univercells.

The new investments will advance access to mRNA research and vaccine manufacturing technology that will support the capacity of low and middle-income countries (LMICs) to develop vaccines at scale.

Senegal’s Institut Pasteur de Dakar and South Africa’s Biovac, both experienced in vaccine manufacturing, will each receive a $5m grant to acquire the technology to develop locally relevant vaccines.

Quantoom Biosciences will receive $20m to further advance the technology and reduce commercialisation costs.

The foundation will grant a further $10m to other LMIC vaccine manufacturers.

The new funding builds on its earlier $55m investment in mRNA manufacturing technology.

Biovac CEO Morena Makhoana stated: “This collaboration will help close critical gaps in access to promising mRNA vaccines against diseases that disproportionately affect the world’s poorest.

“It will also assist us in our mission to establish end-to-end vaccine manufacturing capability at scale in Africa for global supply.”

Leveraging Univercells’ original vaccine manufacturing technology, IPD intends to begin manufacturing essential measles and rubella vaccines.

IPD CEO Dr Amadou Sall stated: “Expanding our capacity to discover and manufacture affordable mRNA vaccines in Africa is an important and necessary step towards vaccine self-reliance in the region.”

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