Let’s strive to produce human vaccines

The nation is currently hanging by a thread, barely surviving, health-wise, that is! Repeated calls for a swift intervention to calm the tide of death in hospitals and clinics across the country only excite the wrath of authorities.

Desperation is consuming the ordinary populace, the hoi polloi that relies on the public health system for their care and wealth, on account of a shortage of medicines and essential drugs.

Their cries seem to land on ears hard of hearing. Surely something ought to be done. The finger-pointing and blame games must be abandoned. Instead, a collective solution is required. One that the nation will own. And here at Ernestos, we have rendered unsolicited advice to successive governments of this country.

Just as the King of Mercy was to say, ‘Let those with ears hear, and those with eyes see’, so too do I summon that ancient mantra to call my country and people to the rescue. The solution to the country’s health crisis lies in planning and execution. The dire shortage of medicines, drugs and vaccines is due to the bankruptcy of our thought leaders.

We already possess a vaccine institute, which South Africa’s President, Cyril Ramaphosa, hailed during last week’s Southern African Customs Union (SACU) summit in Cape Town, as ‘second to none’. Of course, the institute in question is none other than the Botswana Vaccine Institute (BVI) - an animal pharmaceutical organisation with over 45 years of experience in livestock vaccines.

With its main technical partner, Boehringer Ingelheim Animal Health (BIAH), the BVI boasts unparalleled expertise in producing Foot-and-Mouth Disease (FMD) and Peste des Petits Ruminants (PPR) vaccines.

I remember back in the early 1990’s when there was an outbreak of Contagious Bovine Pleuropneumonia (cattle lung disease), and BVI rose to the occasion, producing vaccines to vaccinate the infected livestock.

As you can imagine, Botswana did not vaccinate its cattle in the North West District but culled all the infected cattle in a bid to secure its beef export status in the lucrative European Economic Community (EEC) market.

However, Namibia, our neighbours to the west, bought tonnes and tonnes of the vaccine from BVI to vaccinate their cattle, and indeed managed to effectively deal with the outbreak.

The late politician, Joseph Kavindama, won the hearts of many in his constituency when he debunked the inconsistency of government policy in the CBPP debacle – a feat that permanently secured the seat for the opposition, Botswana Congress Party! My beef with the Botswana Vaccine Institute is that, for too long, it has concentrated on animal vaccines. It is now time for the world-class facilities and laboratories it boasts to be used to produce human vaccines and medicines.

A feasibility study completed in October 2024 has shown potential for BVI to manufacture human drugs and vaccines locally. Perhaps the only hurdle on the way could be the institution’s ability to satisfy the regulatory requirements and good manufacturing practices that the World Health Organisation imposes on human vaccines and drug manufacturers! All efforts must be made to ensure that BVI carries the twin specialisations of animal vaccine and human vaccine production. And to realise this goal, we must once again look not to the developed world, but to our partners in the developing world. And who would fit that bill perfectly, except for Cuba!

We already enjoy cordial bilateral and diplomatic relations with this remarkable island nation whose Socialism has terrified its neighbour, and world superpower, the United States of America, in the process defying the over six-decade-long U.S. economic and financial embargo.

As an illustration of Cuba’s proficiency in the pharmaceutical sector, the country managed at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic to develop five COVID-19 vaccine candidates, of which three - Abdala, Soberana 02, and Soberana Plus - were successfully produced and rolled out nationally.

According to reports from Cuba, Abdala showed 92 per cent efficacy, while Soberana 02 combined with Soberana Plus reached about 91 per cent efficacy. You can imagine what this means for a country under an economic and financial blockade from the world’s superpower! But thanks to its Socialist spirit, the people of Cuba prevailed over adversity ot become an example to the rest of the world.

To this day, since 2006, Botswana continues to enjoy the services of specialist health care givers – Pharmacists, Medical Doctors, Family Medicine Specialists etal thanks to a Memorandum of Agreement signed between the two countries in the health space. By all standards, Cuba has proven its capability in the pharmaceutical sector. It behoves Botswana to expand this collaboration with Cuba into the production of human vaccines and drugs.

The door on Cuba’s side is wide open; all that remains is for our political leaders to say the word to get the ball rolling. I say all this mindful of the political hurdles that Botswana will have to manage to bring this to fruition. Already, the number of medical experts deployed to Botswana under the standing legal agreement between the two countries has been downsized.

And this happened curiously after our President, Duma Boko, had met with the US Secretary of State, Marco Rubio! But given the tempting offers from the World Trade Organisation under the Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS), Botswana has a perfect chance to partner with Cuba or Brazil to produce generic vaccines under these countries’ patents.

Once Botswana garners the capacity to manufacture its vaccines and drugs for human consumption locally, it will expand its export base from the 15 countries that currently buy animal vaccines from BVI.

We could become a hub for vaccine and drug production not only in the Southern African Development Community (SADC), but throughout Africa. And with the African Continental Free Trade Area Agreement in operation, the sky is certainly not the limit – we could soar beyond the firmaments! At the same time, Botswana must also develop a law for Traditional and Indigenous Herbal Medicines. There is no embarrassment in a people that are proud of their culture, their mores and traditions.

Herbal and traditional medicines have sustained Batswana long before the advent of conventional medicine. If anything, conventional medicine borrows the wisdom it claims from indigenous knowledge. Advanced countries of Asia, such as China and India, have understood this truth for a long time; that is why we consume their traditional medicines under the euphemism, ‘Green Tea’.

Batswana also have their herbal teas, but at the rate we are going, I am afraid they will all soon be patented by European traders and merchants unless the government steps in to protect them for the current and future generations.