Six African countries will be the first to receive the technology needed to produce their own vaccines from a scheme headed by the World Health Organization.
The aim of the project is to assist low- and middle-income countries in manufacturing vaccines at scale and according to international standards, with the aim of ending the reliance of African countries on vaccine manufacturers outside the continent.
The announcement comes a week after BioNTech, which produces the Pfizer vaccine for Covid-19, said it planned to deliver factory facilities built out of shipping containers to several African countries to allow the Pfizer vaccine to be produced.
The global mRNA hub has the potential to expand manufacturing capacity for other vaccines and products, such as insulin to treat diabetes, cancer medicines and, potentially, vaccines for diseases such as Malaria, Tuberculosis and HIV.
The WHO established its global mRNA technology transfer hub after it was found that companies prioritised sales to governments that could pay the highest price for vaccine over low- and middle-income countries.
The ultimate goal of the scheme is to spread capacity for national and regional production to all health technologies.
While the BioNTech initiative was welcomed for potentially shortening the supply chain of Pfizer vaccine to Africa, it was also criticized for not sharing technological knowhow, which the WHO project will go some way towards remedying.
The WHO chief said that reliance on a few companies to supply global public goods is limiting and dangerous.
The spokes will be distributed all over the world and the hub will be for South Africa.
Increasing the capacity of all regions to manufacture health products is the best way to address health emergencies and reach universal health coverage.
Clinical trials in South Africa are expected to start in the fourth quarter of this year, with approval expected in 2024, but there are other options that the hub is exploring.
Tedros said that the benefits of this initiative would extend far beyond Covid-19 by creating a platform for vaccines against other diseases. This is a strategic investment, not just for Covid, but for all the major health problems that we face.
Tedros has repeatedly called for equitable access to vaccines in order to beat the Pandemic and rails against the way wealthy nations have kept too much vaccine.
He pointed out on Friday that 116 countries were not on track to have 70% of the population protected by the middle of the year.
Only 1% of the vaccines used in Africa are produced on the continent.
The WHO will work with the six countries to develop a plan for training and support so they can start making vaccines. Training will start in March.
The South African hub is making vaccines at a laboratory scale.
The South African president said Friday's announcement means mutual respect, mutual recognition of what we can all bring to the party, investment in our economies, infrastructure investment and, in many ways, giving back to the continent.
One of the goals of starting up local production was to empower regions and countries to fend for themselves during crises, and in peacetime, according to the French president.
The global vaccine distribution scheme Covax and the vaccines alliance Gavi should commit to buying vaccines from local manufacturing hubs according to the president.
The lack of a market for vaccines produced in Africa is concerning to all of us. Covax and Gavi need to commit to buying vaccines from local manufacturers instead of going outside of those hubs that have been set up, according to Ramaphosa.
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