Six African countries – Egypt, Kenya, Nigeria, Senegal, South Africa and Tunisia – will receive the technology to produce their own messenger RNA vaccines, a key step in ending the global inequality in COVID vaccination.
A person protests in Cape Town (South Africa) for equal access to vaccines against covid. EFE/EPA/NIC BOTHMA
The Director General of the World Health Organization (who), Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesusannounced the names of the six beneficiary countries of this initiative on vaccines in the framework of the European Union (EU)-Africa summit held in Brussels, and in the presence of the presidents of those nations, in addition to the French Emmanuel Macron and the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen.
“They will be vaccines designed by Africa, owned by Africa, and with African leadership,” said Von der Leyen, who stressed that the EU, France and Germany have supported the project that has made this advance possible with an investment of 40 million euros. .
The initiative took its first steps last year with the creation of a research center on messenger RNA technology in Cape Town (South Africa), in which not only the EU, France and Germany have collaborated, but also Belgium, Norway and Canada.
Its goal was to develop its own mRNA technology, a new field for vaccine design that has achieved the most effective in the current COVID-19 pandemic: the drugs developed by Moderna and Pfizer-BioNTech were based on it, and showed the rates higher effectiveness against the coronavirus.
mRNA vaccines differ from traditional ones (normally based on weakened forms of the virus) in that they introduce ribonucleic acid (RNA) molecules that by themselves contain instructions with which the human body can produce the virus and at the same time the antibody that neutralize.
First African anticovid vaccine
The Cape Town center, which Tedros visited last week, has already managed to develop an anticovid vaccine similar to Moderna’s in the laboratory, although there is still a long way to go: clinical trials will begin this year, and even if they are developed with success may have to wait until 2024 for it to be available.
The center is run by a consortium that includes the South African vaccine manufacturer Biovac, the firm Afrigen Biologics (which developed the necessary technology) and the South African Medical Research Council.
The necessary training to develop the vaccine production centers in the six selected countries will begin in March, and although the fight against COVID-19 will surely be its first priority, the longer-term objective is to combat other diseases such as malaria, tuberculosis or AIDS.
Von der Leyen highlighted in this regard that currently only 1% of the vaccines administered in Africa are produced on the continent, but that with initiatives such as the current one, it is hoped that by 2040 that percentage will rise to 60%.
“It is not acceptable that Africa is always at the bottom of access to vaccines. We appreciate the donations, but they are not sustainable solutions and we want to empower ourselves », she added at the ceremony South African President Cyril Ramaphosa.
Vaccines in Africa: only 20% immunized
Although more than 10,000 million anticovid vaccines have already been administered in the world, with which more than 60% of the global population has received at least one dose, the distribution is very unequal.
While developed countries have very high vaccination rates and many of their citizens have even received booster injections, in Africa 80% of the population has not received a single dose.
“We have many tools to combat COVID-19, the great tragedy has been that millions of people have not yet benefited from them,” lamented Tedros, who recalled that 116 countries in the world are still far from achieving the great goal of achieving by mid-2022 that 70% of its population is vaccinated.
Although today’s announcement is important, Ramaphosa recalled that there are other ways to fight inequality in the pandemic, such as the suspension of vaccine and treatment patents that his country and India have been defending since 2020 before the World Trade Organization (WTO). .
Dozens of countries have joined the Indo-South African request, but an agreement has not yet been reached due to the reluctance of countries that are the headquarters of large pharmaceutical companies, as is the case of many in the European Union, Japan or Switzerland.
“With today’s initiative we limit the benefits of companies but at the same time we protect the precious asset that is intellectual property, we have to find a bridge between both things,” said Von der Leyen
MSF values the decision but asks for greater involvement of Moderna
Doctors Without Borders appreciates the WHO’s decision but urges Moderna to help the Cape Town center to shorten production times and recalls that its vaccine was financed with public funds.
According Kate Stegeman, MSF Access Campaign Advocacy Coordinator For the Africa region, “This announcement marks a positive milestone on the path to expanding vaccine manufacturing capacity in low- and middle-income countries.”
In a statement, MSF highlights that the center’s research and development partner, the South African company Afrigen Biologics and Vaccines, has recently succeeded in producing microliter batches of an mRNA vaccine based on the publicly available sequence of the vaccine from the American pharmaceutical corporation Moderna. .
“And it has succeeded despite the lack of help from Moderna even though its vaccine has been financed, to a large extent, with public funds. The timeframe for the center to produce a final mRNA vaccine and eventual technology transfer to manufacturers is considerable, but could be shortened significantly if Moderna were to provide technical assistance to the center.”
The medical organization believes that many more advances are needed, such as developing a more heat-stable version, conducting clinical trials, and developing a large-scale manufacturing process. Thus, MSF urges Modernawhose vaccine is the most similar to the one designed by Afigen, to provide technical assistance to the center to shorten production lead timesNo of the vaccine.
“Although the hub is certainly an important initiative now and for future pandemic responses, the fastest way to start vaccine production in African countries and other regions with limited vaccine production remains the full and transparent transfer of vaccine know-how from already approved mRNA technologies to companies with existing capacity that can be retrofitted to produce mRNA vaccines,’ he says.
0 Comments:
Publicar un comentario