Over the past six months, the regionalized vaccine manufacturing agenda has become more practical, focused, and delivery-oriented.
The case for regionalized vaccine manufacturing was already clear. What has changed is the level of attention on the policy, market, and institutional choices needed to make it sustainable: predictable demand, clear and timely regulatory pathways, aligned financing, and clearer accountability.
The RVMC Secretariat has supported this shift - moving from shared analysis to sharper action and helping partners focus on what it will take to turn regional vaccine manufacturing capacity into sustainable regional supply.
What has changed
1. The conversation has moved from political support to practical implementation.
Regionalized vaccine manufacturing now has strong political backing. The priority now is to translate that support into decisions that governments, regional institutions, funders, regulators, and manufacturers can act on.
For example, in Africa, we helped shape this discussion at the World Health Summit Regional Meeting in Nairobi. The resulting call to action focused on the practical conditions needed to build sustainable markets for African-made vaccines: shared regional roadmaps, predictable, bankable demand, coordinated procurement, stronger, more aligned regulatory systems, and more targeted project de-risking.
2. Financing discussions are increasingly focused on demand and bankability.
A central lesson from recent engagements is that supply-side investment is not enough. Facilities, technology transfer, and financing will only deliver lasting impact if they are connected to credible demand and viable market access.
For example, through Strategic Advisory Board discussions and engagement with partners, the Secretariat has helped sharpen the message that financing, demand, regulation, and manufacturing strategy must be aligned from the outset. The issue is not only whether capital is available, but whether projects have the demand visibility, procurement pathways, and enabling conditions needed to become investable.
This has shaped the Secretariat’s growing focus on demand-side conditions. In ASEAN, for example, the Secretariat is working with partners to support the next phase of the ASEAN Vaccine Security and Self-Reliance initiative, including practical priorities around stronger regional demand signals, more efficient regulatory pathways and complementary manufacturing capabilities. Ongoing discussions on a pooled or coordinated procurement pilot are helping explore how countries can strengthen demand visibility and build confidence for manufacturers and investors.
Establishing or strengthening pooled procurement is a shared priority across our regions of focus, with the potential to create more predictable demand for regional vaccine manufacturers. We have supported cross-regional exchange between global and regional partners to help emerging mechanisms draw on practical lessons, avoid duplication, and identify approaches best suited to their regional context.
3. Evidence is being turned into practical support for implementation.
The RVMC Secretariat is increasingly moving from analysis to operational support, helping countries, regional bodies, manufacturers and partners identify viable opportunities, address bottlenecks and move from concept to implementation. We are also engaging governments across our priority regions to explore how we can support national manufacturing initiatives and position them within wider regional strategies, markets, and health-security objectives.
In Brazil, for example, we contributed to discussions with the Ministry of Health and PAHO on how to assess technology transfer costs and value - helping ensure that decisions on technology transfer, investment, and manufacturing strategy are linked to long-term value for health systems, industrial capacity, and pandemic preparedness.
Our advisory support is grounded in evidence developed with partners. The regional market-shaping white papers for ASEAN and Latin America and the Caribbean, developed with CHAI and building on similar analysis for Africa, set out what a sustainable vaccine manufacturing footprint could look like in each region. They identify persistent gaps in demand, regulatory systems, market access, manufacturing capacity, technology transfer, and financing conditions.
4. Progress is becoming more visible and accountable.
The RVM Insights Hub (Launched for the WHA) is helping create a shared evidence base for regionalized vaccine manufacturing. By bringing together data across regions and across the RVMC Framework, the Hub helps partners track progress, identify gaps and focus attention on the constraints that matter most.
This matters because implementation depends on clarity. The Hub supports accountability by showing not only what has been committed, but where action is still needed across demand, financing, regulation, technology transfer and manufacturing capability.
Why this matters
The past six months show a clear shift.
Demand is being actively shaped rather than assumed. Financing is being linked to bankability and delivery risk. Technology transfer is being treated as part of broader system design. Regulation is increasingly recognized as central to market access and trust. Data is being used to guide action, not just describe progress.
These are not final outcomes. But they are the conditions needed for delivery.
They also show why our role matters. The Secretariat does not build factories, procure vaccines, or regulate products. Its value lies in catalysing the ecosystem to make better informed decisions: advocating for the right policy choices, aligning partners around shared priorities, advising through evidence and analysis, and accounting for progress.
Over the next six months, we will focus on translating this direction into practical results through deepening the evidence available through the Insights Hub, working directly with selected countries and manufacturers to advance priority initiatives, supporting the design of an ASEAN pooled procurement pilot, strengthening regulatory cooperation, and maintaining clear accountability for progress.
Regionalized vaccine manufacturing is no longer a distant ambition. The foundations are being built, but still fragile. The task now is to ensure they deliver – for routine immunization and outbreak response.