The Government, through the Uganda Development Corporation, has set aside sh11b to operate an anti-tick vaccine manufacturing industry at the Namanve Industrial Area.

The executive director of Uganda Development Corporation, Dr Patrick Birungi, said the decision to invest in the production of vaccines was prompted by the scientists at Makerere University and National Agricultural Research Organisation (NARO), developing the Ugandan version of the anti-tick vaccine whose investment requires commercialisation.

He said farmers are facing a challenge of fake vaccines on the market, which has led to losses. Birungi added that their investment will ensure production of better-quality vaccines which will improve production in livestock.

The development of the vaccine started in 2005 with a seed grant from the Dutch Research Council, but the Government of Uganda, through the Presidential Initiative on Science and Technology, took interest and continued providing financial support to date. A team of scientists from Makerere University who developed the anti-tick vaccine called it ticvac-u.

“We had always wanted to invest in science as a business and when we were approached by Alphasan Company to put money in this venture, we could not hesitate. We want the factory to be operational by next month.

“We are also in talks with the Uganda Investment Research Institute to start manufacturing poultry vaccines, having seen that the sector is also being affected by many diseases yet they lack effective vaccines,” Birungi said.

He said once this project is successful they will inject more money in the factory so that by the end of 2021 or early 2022, they are in production of human vaccines.

Birungi added that they will continue to invest more in areas that the private sector has not fully penetrated yet they are vital to the country’s economy.

He, however, called upon the Government to continue investing in research so that the economy can have a large pool of experts to spearhead such innovations.

The investment comes on the back of other big projects undertaken by the Uganda Development Corporation such as the sh50b Soroti Fruit Factory and sh80b sugar factory in Atiak.