Six African countries have been selected to receive technology that will enable them manufacture COVID-19 vaccines locally.
The countries that have been selected include; Egypt, Kenya, Nigeria, Senegal, South Africa and Tunisia.
The technologies that the countries will receive will enable them manufacture mRNA vaccines. Some of the COVID-19 vaccines that have used this technology are the Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna. The transfer of technology is part of WHO’s initiative to set up a technology transfer hub that will enable production of vaccines and even therapeutics.
The announcement was made today in Brussels during the the European Union- African Union Summit. It was made at a ceremony hosted by the European Council, France, South Africa and WHO in the presence of President Macron, President Ramaphosa, and the President of the European Council, Charles Michel.
According to the World Health Organisation, the above mentioned countries were selected because they applied to receive the technology. The UN health agency is going to work with all the selected countries to develop a roadmap and also offer training so that production of vaccines can start soon. Production of the vaccines is expected to start this year.
The director general of WHO, Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus says the transfer of the technology will put an end to situations where countries rely on a few companies to supply global goods.
“No other event like the COVID-19 pandemic has shown that reliance on a few companies to supply global public goods is limiting, and dangerous. In the mid- to long-term, the best way to address health emergencies and reach universal health coverage is to significantly increase the capacity of all regions to manufacture the health products they need, with equitable access as their primary endpoint ,” he said.
According to WHO, the techologies will not only handle COVID-19 vaccines but will look into other products such as insulin to treat diabetes, cancer medicines and, potentially, vaccines for other priority diseases such as malaria, tuberculosis and HIV. The ultimate goal is to extend capacity building for national and regional production to all health technologies.
The President of South Africa, Cyril Ramaphosa says the hub will level the playing field and allow African countries to make their own vaccines.
“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,” he said.
The need for the mRNA laboratory became evident during the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic when African countries could not access vaccines because countries where they were manufactured had bought them. This left many countries like Uganda dependent on the donations that trickle in sparsely.
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