EuBiologics together with the International Vaccine Institute (IVI), said on Tuesday that it signed a technology transfer agreement with DEK Vaccines to enable the domestic production and supply of the oral cholera vaccine (OCV) in Ghana.

Recently, cholera has been spreading around the world due to contaminated drinking water supplies caused by droughts and floods instigated by global warming. Accordingly, the number of cholera patients has been increasing rapidly, especially in Africa. 

Through this technology transfer with DEK Vaccines, EuBiologics plans to help solve the cholera vaccine shortage by distributing OCV across Africa. As such, EuBiologics will supply the cholera vaccine raw material and DEK will be in charge of finalizing the vaccine, which is expected to be available by the end of 2025 or early 2026.

Notably, DEK will not supply OCV to UNICEF, but directly to government health agencies in Ghana and neighboring African countries. Consequently, this does not impact EuBiologics' existing supply markets which include its supply to UNICEF.

Additionally, IVI will support both companies in the completion process and scale-up production by providing knowledge and technology transfer training to build and strengthen local vaccine manufacturing capacity. IVI will also lend experience to help coordinate with regulatory authorities for the necessary licensing procedures.

DEK Vaccines, a specialized vaccine manufacturing company, was established in 2021 by Kinapharma, a major Ghanaian pharmaceutical company, to secure vaccine sovereignty through the establishment of a vaccine production facility in Ghana.

"We believe that this cholera vaccine technology transfer is a meaningful contribution to public health in the African region," said a EuBiologics company official. "It will also generate revenue through the supply of raw materials and the technology transfer milestones from the finished vaccine product."