The Government of Guyana has made a pitch to the leaders of Rwanda and India to manufacture vaccines in the Caribbean.

Vice President Bharat Jagdeo made that disclosure during a press conference on Friday. 

“This has been an old issue here about the safety of our people and given what happened in the pandemic. We have been exploring the possibility of regional security with vaccines,” Jagdeo said.

He said discussions would continue at the government and company levels to examine the possibilities.

Guyana’s President Dr Irfaan Ali said recently that his country will be seeking to develop a facility like BioNTech’s mRNA vaccine factory in Kigali, Rwanda while encouraging wealthy investors in medicine to invest in the Caribbean

Discussions were already held between Guyana and Barbados to work with researchers and developers. The whole aim is to acquire pharmaceutical equity for global public health.

“The idea is to ensure we have security in the future because you saw what happened during the pandemic. We could not get supplies for people in this part of the world.

“Africa faced the same thing that is why there is a discussion with Rwanda to do the same thing. We can’t rely on the developed world in the future to supply these,” Jagdeo said.

India has made no commitment but discussions have already been held between both countries, with Guyana assisting in the setting up of a vaccine treatment plant and building capacity