Developing countries’ governments should reassure vaccine manufacturers investing in mRNA technology that they will buy the shots they produce, said the head of the Medicines Patent Pool (MPP) last week.
“Low- and middle-income countries must be ready to buy the products if they want regional production – their part of the deal is providing the demand,” said MPP executive director Charles Gore at a meeting of the mRNA vaccine technology transfer programme in Cape Town.
Gore’s remarks have particular resonance for SA, after the NDoH last year sidelined state-backed vaccine manufacturer Biovac for Cipla SA, which sourced cheaper pneumococcal shots from India, reports BusinessLIVE.
The mRNA vaccine technology transfer programme was established by the World Health Organisation (WHO) and the MPP mid-pandemic to boost developing countries’ capacity to manufacture Covid-19 vaccines.
Many global pharmaceutical firms, including Pfizer and Moderna, had refused to share information with other companies to allow them to replicate their vaccines.
However, University of the Witwatersrand scientists used the publicly available genetic sequence of Moderna’s mRNA Covid-19 vaccine to help Cape Town-based Afrigen Biologics make its own, dubbed AfriVac 2121.
This knowledge is now being shared with 15 vaccine manufacturers in low and middle-income countries, including SA’s Biovac.
Other African participants include Kenya’s Biovax, Egypt’s BioGeneric Pharma, Senegal’s Institut Pasteur, Nigeria’s Biovaccines and Tunisia’s Pasteur Institute. Vaccine manufacturers in Europe, Asia and Latin America are also participating in the programme.
The vaccine manufacturers have started out building their own mRNA Covid-19 vaccine manufacturing capacity and are expected to then develop new mRNA human vaccines that meet regional needs.
Funding
The WHO’s head of vaccine research, Martin Friede, said that 11 manufacturers are on track to manufacture mRNA vaccines for human use by 2030 “if suitably funded”.
It was vital, however, for governments to procure the shots made by these companies produced so they could sustain costs, scale up production capacity, and be in a position to respond to the next pandemic, he added.
Analysis of cumulative mRNA vaccine production over an 18-month period after the declaration of a new pandemic indicated the network could initially produce 60m doses a year of a “pandemic response” vaccine, and rapidly increase to up to 2bn doses annually, he pointed out.
A key aspect of the mRNA vaccine technology transfer programme is developing local capacity to make the active drug substance used in the vaccines, rather than bottling imported ingredients, said MPP technology transfer director Ike James.
An SA consortium that includes Biovac, Afrigen and the SA Medical Research Council is considering potential mRNA vaccines to prevent TB, HIV, respiratory syncytial virus (RSV), Rift Valley fever and gonorrhoea, he said.
Vaccine manufactures have started out with mRNA vaccines against Covid-19 because there are commercially available shots against which they can be compared, he said.
Manufacturers which successfully develop novel mRNA jabs are expected to share their intellectual property with the MPP, which will then provide technology transfer to other programme participants.
See more from MedicalBrief archives:
Africa must rise to reap benefits of vaccine research – virologist
Africa needs to strengthen readiness for public health threats
Africa needs to strengthen readiness for public health threats