Manuel Batz, Component Lead Vaccine Production within the BACKUP Health Program at GIZ, leads a team that supports the Partnerships for African Vaccine Manufacturing (PAVM) in the implementation of the Framework for Action. As an integral part of the Team Europe Initiative (TEI) on Manufacturing and Access to Vaccines (MAV+) the current focus is on Market Design & Demand Intelligence, IP and Tech-Transfer, Talent Development and private sector engagement. Manuel Batz joined GIZ in April 2022 as Senior Advisor Vaccine Production for Africa. Previously he held various leadership roles within the Life Science Tools industry with focus on Emerging Markets, such as Latin America and Middle East & Africa. In 2016, as Director Middle East and Africa for the Bioprocessing division at Merck KGaA, he developed and launched a vaccine manufacturing initiative for Africa bringing together local and global stakeholders from both public and private sector to support local efforts to build vaccine manufacturing capacity on the continent. With his academic background in Business Administration (from European Business School, London) coupled with his broad experience with Biomanufacturing technologies, tools, services and solutions for both traditional and novel modalities, his current focus, closely aligned with the PAVM secretariat, is on supporting the development of viable business models to assure sustainability of local manufacturing.
