WHO to set up hub in S. Africa to give firms vaccine-making tech

GENEVA • The World Health Organisation (WHO) is setting up a hub in South Africa to give companies from poor and middle-income countries the know-how and licences to produce Covid-19 vaccines.

South African President Cyril Ramaphosa called it a historic step to spread life-saving technology.

The "tech transfer hub" could make it possible for African firms to start manufacturing mRNA vaccines - the advanced technology now used in shots from Pfizer and Moderna - in as little as nine to 12 months, the WHO said.

It said two companies had signed up so far, and that it was in talks with Pfizer and Moderna about participating.

"Through this initiative we will change the narrative of an Africa that is a centre of disease and poor development," said Mr Ramaphosa.

The WHO has long been calling for rich countries to share vaccine technology. The initiative to help African countries produce vaccines is especially urgent at a time when cases and deaths on the continent have increased by almost 40 per cent over the past week.

"Today I am delighted to announce that WHO is in discussions with a consortium of companies and institutions to establish a technology transfer hub in South Africa," WHO director-general Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus told a press conference.

The WHO described the hub as a training facility, "where the technology is established at industrial scale and clinical development performed. Interested manufacturers from low-and middle-income countries can receive training and any necessary licences to the technology".

The two South African companies participating so far are development company Afrigen Biologics and manufacturer Biovac.

WHO chief scientist Soumya Swaminathan said the organisation was in negotiations with Pfizer and Moderna, which have both produced vaccines using mRNA technology. It sends instructions to the body to make proteins that trigger an immune response.

Mr Ramaphosa said the development was "historic", but South Africa was also still pushing separately for a waiver to intellectual property rules governing Covid-19 vaccines.

REUTERS