Analysis Shows BRICS Nations Are Making Strides in Vaccine Production

Image Credit: © Wacomka - stock.adobe.com

Over the past 20 years, the BRICS nations—comprised of Brazil, the Russian Federation, India, China, and South Africa—have made progress in vaccine development, regulation, and production. The creation of the BRICS Vaccine Research and Development (R&D) Center is expected to have a major impact on both vaccine cost and accessibility, due to the expected development of stronger research capability, production, and distribution technology, along with future standardization to improve vaccine production quality. Therefore, as a study published in Frontiers in Public Health explains, the BRICS’ contributions to vaccine development are predicted to impact the global vaccination market, while also accelerating the availability of vaccinations in developing nations.

The aforementioned study used a comprehensive research approach compared to other methods, including studies that feature different approaches and larger contexts, which the authors said is imperative in order to better understand the vaccine industry, in which politics and healthcare can sometimes intersect.

Therefore, an integrated approach can allow researchers to better differentiate fact from fiction. In addition, the comprehensive retrospective approach was used in this study because it has better potential to reveal facts without compromising informed research, systems analysis, theoretical applications, and the direct applicability of the results to practice and policy development, according to the authors. The systematic literature review method is an analysis method based on the collection and collation of existing literature, which researches and excavates corresponding fields in accordance with systematic steps to find the existing research focus, direction, and problems in this field.

For articles that met the requirements after screening, researchers further adopted the full-text analysis method for testing. They evaluated the quantitative indicators in each article. These included the analysis of observed measurable data; representative graphs; projected graphs; production and sales volumes; production and sales values; ratios; export and import values; count of production facilities; number of vaccines administered within time frames; and other quantifiable information extracted and compared through horizontal analysis and common size analysis. The qualitative details were removed and synthesized using a four-step content analysis procedure. The articles were initially scanned for conceptual thoughts and relevant perspectives on vaccine production and pharmaceutical self-sufficiency in the BRICS. These were extracted and coded inductively by the team.

Overlapping concepts, thoughts, and perspectives across articles were included once. Also, the qualitative data were then extracted into a matrix and rigorously checked to ensure the uniqueness of each item entered into the matrix. The matrix also helped to determine the relationship between the different thoughts and their source of origin to ensure that single-sourced information was not duplicated unnecessarily. Finally, the articles’ research design and methodological quality were assessed.

The vaccine industry consists of research and development, production, distribution, and vaccination. As can be seen from the above systematic review of innovation drivers, the current research on the BRICS vaccine industry has covered all aspects of the industry and adopted qualitative, quantitative, and mixed methods, according to Drug Discovery and Development. The conclusions of the literature review indicate that direct state support, state support for pharmaceutical companies, and entrepreneurship and innovation have led to vaccine self-sufficiency in BRICS countries.

Reference

On the Momentum Toward Vaccine Self-Sufficiency in the BRICS: An Integrative Review of the Role of Pharmaceutical Entrepreneurship and Innovation. Frontiers in Public Health. October 9, 2023. Accessed November 2, 2023. https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fpubh.2023.1116092/full#h6