Six countries in Africa have been chosen to host their own production of messenger RNA (mRNA) vaccines, as the first beneficiaries of WHO's global program to produce these vaccines, she announced on Friday (February 18th).
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South Africa, Egypt, Kenya, Nigeria, Senegal and Tunisia have been chosen by the World Health Organization to enable the African continent, which has suffered from limited access to vaccines against -Covid, to manufacture its own vaccines to fight against the coronavirus pandemic but also other diseases.
“
The Covid-19 pandemic has shown better than any other event that relying on a handful of companies to deliver global public goods is restrictive and dangerous
,” WHO Director-General Tedros said. Adhanom Ghebreyesus.
The best way to address health emergencies and achieve universal health coverage is “
to dramatically increase the capacity of all regions to produce the health products they need
", he added.
Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus has consistently called for equitable access to vaccines in order to overcome the pandemic and he regularly protests against the fact that rich nations have taken the doses for themselves, leaving Africa without much access to vaccination.
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A ceremony marking the announcement of the mRNA technology transfer is due to take place in Brussels on Friday during the summit between the European Union and the African Union.
“
We have talked a lot about the production of mRNA vaccines in Africa.
But this goes even further.
This is an mRNA technology designed in Africa, led by Africa and owned by Africa
,” said European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen.
Expertise
Currently, only 1% of the vaccines used in Africa are produced on this continent of some 1.3 billion inhabitants.
In 2021, WHO supported an mRNA technology laboratory in South Africa to help manufacturers in low- and middle-income countries produce their own vaccines.
The role of the WHO global program is to ensure that manufacturers in these countries have the necessary know-how to produce mRNA vaccines on a large scale and in accordance with international standards.
Used in Covid vaccines from Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna, mRNA technology elicits an immune response by delivering genetic molecules containing the code for key elements of a pathogen to human cells.
The new production units in Africa, intended primarily to fight against Covid-19, will be able to manufacture other vaccines and products, such as insulin to treat diabetes, drugs against cancer and, potentially, vaccines against diseases such as malaria, tuberculosis and HIV.
The ultimate goal of the program is to expand national and regional production capacity in all health technologies.
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“
Mutual respect
”
The WHO said it would work with the first six countries chosen to develop a roadmap for training and support so they can start producing vaccines as quickly as possible.
The training is due to start in March.
The South African center is already producing mRNA vaccines in the laboratory and is in the process of scaling up to commercial scale.
For South African President Cyril Ramaphosa, Friday's announcement "
signifies mutual respect, mutual recognition of the stone that we can all make, investment in our economies, investment in infrastructure and , in many ways, giving back to the continent what is rightfully its
'.
French President Emmanuel Macron said for his part that supporting Africa's health sovereignty was one of the main objectives of the launch of local production, "to give regions and countries the means to take themselves into their own hands. , during crises and in times of peace".
More than 10.4 billion doses of the Covid vaccine have been administered worldwide, and almost 62% of the world's population has received at least one injection.
However, only 11.3% of Africans had been fully vaccinated by early February.