The World Health Organization (WHO) has said it’s fixing a hub in South Africa to offer companies from poor and middle-income countries the know-how and licences to supply COVID-19 vaccines. This is a step that President Cyril Ramaphosa has taken to spread lifesaving technology.
The “tech transfer hub” will allow African companies to begin manufacturing mRNA vaccines – the advanced technology now used in shots from Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna – in as little as nine to 12 months, the WHO said.
WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus made the announcement aimed toward boosting access to vaccines across the African continent, where coronavirus infections and deaths increased by almost 40 percent over the past week. “Today I’m delighted to announce that WHO is in discussions with a consortium of companies and institutions to work out a technology transfer hub in South Africa ,” Tedros said during a press briefing in Geneva on Monday. “The consortium involves a company Afrigen Biologics & Vaccines, which will act as the hub both by manufacturing mRNA vaccines itself & by providing training to a manufacturer Biovac,” he added.
Data source: WHO and news agencies