WHO to set up Covid-19 mRNA vaccine technology transfer hub in SA
“The ability to manufacture vaccines, medicines and other health-related commodities will help to put Africa on a path to self-determination,” said President Ramaphosa.
CAPE TOWN, June 21 (ANA) – The World Health Organisation (WHO) and its COVAX partners are working with a South African consortium comprising Biovac, Afrigen Biologics and Vaccines, a network of universities and the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) to establish its first Covid-19 mRNA vaccine technology transfer hub.
The operation is the first of its kind on the continent.
In his opening statement, South African President Cyril Ramaphosa said that the Covid-19 pandemic has revealed the full extent of the vaccine gap between developed and developing economies, and how that gap can severely undermine global health security.
He said that this marks an important milestone towards the achievement of one of the critical objectives of the African Union’s Agenda2063: The Africa We Want.
“The ability to manufacture vaccines, medicines and other health-related commodities will help to put Africa on a path to self-determination,” President Ramaphosa said.
“This is great news, particularly for Africa, which has the least access to vaccines,” WHO Director-General, Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, said.
Ghebreyesus said that Covid-19 has highlighted the importance of local production to address health emergencies, strengthen regional health security and expand sustainable access to health products.
Technology transfer hubs are training facilities where the technology is established at industrial scale and clinical development performed.
The WHO said that interested manufacturers from low- and middle-income countries can receive training and any necessary licences to the technology.
WHO and partners will bring in the production know-how, quality control and necessary licences to a single entity to facilitate a broad and rapid technology transfer to multiple recipients, it said in a statement.
The announcement follows the recent visit to South Africa by the President of France, Mr Emmanuel Macron, who said his country was committed to supporting efforts in Africa to scale up local manufacturing capacity of Covid-19 vaccines and other medical solutions.
The move follows the WHO’s concern that Africa is seemingly being left behind in the continent’s vaccination campaigns, with only two percent of the continent currently vaccinated, compared to Northern countries who have vaccinated over 50 percent of their citizens.
Ramaphosa said that with this investment of technology, knowledge and expertise, Africa will go beyond the development and manufacture of vaccines into a new era of innovation and progress.
“Vaccine nationalism must come to an end. It’s not fair and it cannot be correct that the lives of those in rich countries are worth much more than those in poorer countries,” Ramaphosa said.
The president said they would like the negotiations on the #TRIPSwaiver to proceed with speed, to address the world’s dangerous gap in vaccine inequality, especially now that the African continent is facing a rising third wave, which is more aggressive than previous waves.
“As we work together to respond to this grave global crisis, we are laying a firm foundation for the achievement of health security for the world’s most vulnerable people,” Ramaphosa said.
“Today is a great day for Africa. It is also a great day for all those who work towards a more equitable access to health products. I am proud for Biovac and our South African partners to have been selected by WHO, as France has been supporting them for years,” Macron said.
The technology transfer hub will benefit from the Medicines Patent Pool’s (MPP’s) vast experience of intellectual property (IP) management and issuing of IP licenses, said WHO.
MPP is also assisting WHO to negotiate with technical partners and supporting the governance of the hubs.
WHO says that the South African consortium benefits from having existing operating facilities that have spare capacity and because it has experience in technology transfers.
It is also a global hub that can start training technology recipients immediately.
– African News Agency (ANA); Editing by Naomi Mackay