Africa

COVID-19: 6 African countries to receive technology needed to produce mRNA vaccines

South Africa President Cyril Ramaphosa warns that unless Africa has a vaccine market, manufacturing vaccines will soon collapse  

 
By Kiran Pandey
Published: Monday 21 February 2022
Photo: iStock__

Six African countries — Egypt, Kenya, Nigeria, Senegal, South Africa and Tunisia — will receive technology needed to produce mitochondrial ribonucleic acid (mRNA)-based COVID-19 vaccines.

This was announced by the World Health Organization (WHO), the European Council, France and South Africa February 18, 2022.

They will receive this support under the technology transfer project, announced in June 2021. The project was announced by the WHO in June 2021 for building capacity in low- and middle-income countries to produce mRNA vaccines at scale and according to international standards.

The mRNA technology is advanced and used by companies such as Pfizer Inc / BioNTech SE and Moderna, Inc for their COVID-19 vaccines.

The technology teaches the body’s own cells how to make a protein that triggers an immune response, without using any viral material.

In the case of COVID-19, it produces a harmless piece of the spike protein, alerting the body to defend itself from the virus.

The global mRNA technology transfer hub formally established in July 2021 at Afrigen, Cape Town, South Africa, will work with these six recipient countries.

It consists of Afrigen Biologics (Pty) Ltd, the South African Medical Research Council (SAMRC) and Biovac, a South African vaccine producer.

Within this consortium, Afrigen is the entity mandated to establish mRNA vaccine production technology, SAMRC is providing the research and Biovac is the first manufacturing ‘spoke’.

According to WHO, close to 83 per cent of people in Africa have not received a single dose yet. In this context, strengthening internal capacity to manufacture vaccines is an important milestone.

A major milestone was reached recently this month when South Africa’s Afrigen Biologics made its make its own version of the COVID-19 vaccine.

Way ahead

The WHO and its partners will work with these countries to develop a roadmap. The recipient countries will be supported through trainings so that they are able to produce the highly effective vaccines at home, as soon as possible.

A bio-manufacturing workforce training hub to be announced by the WHO in few weeks, will train people from all interested countries in scientific and clinical research and production capacity.

“This is an initiative that will allow us to make our own vaccines and that, to us, is very important. It means mutual respect, mutual recognition of what we can all bring to the party, investment in our economies, infrastructure investment and, in many ways, giving back to the continent,” said South Africa President Cyril Ramaphosa in a statement.  

Intellectual property (IP) barriers have come in the way of operationalising the mRNA hub completely, Ramaphosa said.

According to Council for Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights, most multinational corporations holding COVID-19 vaccine IP have not shown any willingness to openly license or transfer technologies to all competent vaccine developers globally.

So, a key challenge related to IP barriers includes failure to transfer technology to the hub through non-exclusive licenses to produce, export, and distribute the COVID-19 vaccine in low- and middle-income countries, including through the COVAX facility, Ramaphosa stated.

WHO and Medicines Patent Pool, with the assistance of European and African governments, are working to secure funding and intellectual property rights for Afrigen and its partners to establish the Hub.

Subscribe to Daily Newsletter :

Comments are moderated and will be published only after the site moderator’s approval. Please use a genuine email ID and provide your name. Selected comments may also be used in the ‘Letters’ section of the Down To Earth print edition.