Senegal’s Institut Pasteur de Dakar lands manufacturing deal for Measles and Rubella vaccine

SENEGAL – The Institut Pasteur de Dakar (IPD), a biomedical research center in Senegal, has initiated a new program to advance the development of measles and rubella (MR) vaccine for manufacture within the country. The Dakar-based facility received a funding grant from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation that will be used to support IDP in producing the MR vaccine for essential, routine immunization campaigns in low- and middle-income countries and for outbreak and catch-up campaigns.

“Production will be transferred to the state-of-the-art MADIBA facility, a regional manufacturing hub for COVID-19 and other epidemic vaccines with a capacity to produce 300 million doses for use in Africa,” the facility announced in an official statement.

According to IDP, the grant by the Gates Foundation will deploy Batavia’s Hip-Vax intensified production process for GMP measles and rubella material and Univercells’ NevoLine technology platform to accelerate manufacturing and affordable access to essential and epidemic vaccines in Africa.