Drug industry undermining WHO plans for vaccine manufacture in Africa

 

• The World Health Organization (WHO) has created a technology transfer hub in South Africa to produce and distribute COVID-19 vaccines, and vaccines for other diseases in the future, throughout the continent.
• This is a response to the vast disparity in vaccine distribution between the Global North and the Global South.
• However, a consultancy hired by the vaccine manufacturer BioNTech has been lobbying against the WHO’s venture.

Since June 2021, the WHO has been coordinating a messenger ribonucleic acid (mRNA) vaccine technology transfer hub in South Africa.

The hub is important because it will increase the availability of mRNA vaccines, including those for COVID-19, in Africa, which currently has access to very few vaccines, compared with areas of the Global North.

In a new investigation, the journalBMJTrusted Source has revealed that a consultancy hired by the vaccine manufacturer BioNTech has attempted to undermine the new mRNA hub by lobbying the South African government against the venture.

Technology transfer hub

The WHO’s technology transfer hub aims to use publicly available information about Moderna’s mRNA COVID-19 vaccine to develop a similar vaccine that could be more cheaply and quickly distributed throughout Africa.

The hub is supported by the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention, the Medicines Patent Pool, and the South Africa Medical Research Council. The vaccine would be manufactured by the South African companies Afrigen Biologics and the Biovac Institute.

Medical News Today spoke with Prof. David Walwyn, at the University of Pretoria’s Graduate School of Technology Management, in South Africa. Prof. Walwyn told us more about the significance of the WHO’s technology transfer hub.

“The hub will develop generic mRNA vaccines for local manufacture. If the initiative is successful, it will improve vaccine access and lower the cost of critical vaccines in the region.”

“This is very important. Vaccines are essential to public health programs, bringing highly cost effective treatments for infectious diseases into widespread use. At present, these novel vaccines are covered by patents, and there are no generic equivalents. As a result, they are available in limited quantities and at high cost.”

“In other words, [they are] out of the reach of countries in the Global South which do not have manufacturing capability or access to alternative vaccine types,” said Prof. Walwyn.

Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, WHO director-general, explainsTrusted Source that the technology transfer hub “is great news, particularly for Africa, which has the least access to vaccines. COVID-19 has highlighted the importance of local production to address health emergencies, strengthen regional health security, and expand sustainable access to health products.”

Source: Medical News Today