First movers see investment opportunity in hard-to-reach patients in Africa

Donors and investors have poured money into developing drugs and vaccines against Covid-19 but there is a lack of funds to get them to people in the poorest places. Some investors want to change this. Unlike many other diseases, there is an effective vaccine against Covid-19, thanks in large part to the billions of dollars funneled to small biotech firms and large pharmaceutical companies. But with about 1% of its population fully vaccinated, Africa is facing a surge of coronavirus cases amid the spread of the highly contagious Delta variant. Covid-19 has revealed how little financing is available for core health systems, infrastructure and logistics efforts that ensure vaccines and other medicine reach people in developing countries. “We have left the vulnerable population in Africa unprotected by vaccines in a context where health systems are already weak,” said Mike Ryan from the World Health Organization’s Health Emergencies Programme at a recent press conference. “This is a...