Egypt, Kenya, Nigeria, Senegal, South Africa and Tunisia are the first six African countries that will receive technology from the global mRNA technology transfer hub needed to produce mRNA vaccines on the continent.
The World Health Organization (WHO) made the announcement on Friday at the European Union-African Union summit in Brussels, Belgium.
WHO director-general Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said the best way for the world to address health emergencies and achieve universal health coverage was to significantly increase the capacity of all regions to manufacture the products they need.
“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.”
Since vaccine production began following the onset of the pandemic, there has been global concern that developing countries, especially in Africa, would be left behind in the COVID-19 vaccine distribution.
Ghebreyesus reaffirmed this saying more than 80 percent of Africa’s population is yet to receive a single dose of a COVID-19 vaccine.
“Much of this inequity has been driven globally by the fact that vaccine production is concentrated in a few, mostly, high-income countries.”
“One of the most obvious lessons of the pandemic, therefore, is the urgent need to increase local production of vaccines, especially in low- and middle-income countries.”
South African president Cyril Ramaphosa, a vocal proponent of a temporary waiver of patents for COVID-19 vaccines, said African countries being allowed to make their own vaccines was “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.”
The global mRNA technology transfer hub was formed in 2021 to support manufacturers in low- and middle-income countries to produce their own vaccines, ensuring that they have all the required operating procedures and knowledge to manufacture mRNA vaccines at scale and according to international standards.
Ghebreyesus said the WHO expected the benefits of the hub, primarily set up to address the crisis arising from the COVID-19, will extend beyond the pandemic and create a platform for vaccines for other diseases, like malaria, tuberculosis and cancer.
“This is a strategic investment, not just for COVID but for all the major health problems that we face. The hub will not just be for South Africa, it will be for Africa and for the whole world.”
