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A senior official of the World Health Organization (WHO) said that efforts to develop an African base for COVID-19 vaccine production will focus on trying to replicate Moderna’s vaccine, but the lack of progress in negotiations with the American company means that the project will take time.
After wealthy countries have bought most of this year’s supply, the drive to produce vaccines in Africa aims to help more developing countries obtain COVID-19 vaccines.
Moderna said in October last year that it will not enforce patents related to its vaccines during the pandemic, which makes people hope that other companies can replicate it and help increase the production of COVID-19 vaccines.
But in practice, it is difficult to replicate vaccines without information on how to make vaccines, and the South African Technology Transfer Center supported by WHO was established in June to provide poorer countries with expertise in the production of COVID-19 Vaccines-no agreement has been reached with the company.
On October 31, 2020, you can see vials and medical syringes labeled “COVID-19/Coronavirus Vaccine/Injection Only” in front of the Moderna logo displayed [File: Dado Ruvic/Reuters]“The negotiations did not yield any results,” Martin Fried, the coordinator of the WHO Vaccine Research Initiative, told Reuters.
Moderna did not respond to a request for comment.
This case highlights the challenges that WHO faces as it strives to expand vaccine production to help address the apparent inequality between rich and poor countries in the pandemic.
Of the 5.5 billion COVID-19 injections performed globally, more than three-quarters went to high-income and upper-middle-income countries, which account for more than one-third of the world’s population.
Senior health officials from the African Union said last week that currently, only 3% of Africa is vaccinated, compared to more than half in the United States and three-quarters.
Fried said that Moderna’s vaccine was selected because a large amount of public information and its commitment not to enforce patents made the vaccine easier to replicate than some competitors.
“We have to make a choice now. The deadline has come; it’s time to start ordering chemicals. We chose Moderna,” he said.
But he added that even if the center is managed without Moderna’s help, it may take more than a year to obtain a distributable vaccine, because clinical trials will begin in the second half of 2022.
Quarrel over immunity
In May, the United States said it would support the abandonment of the intellectual property rights of the COVID-19 vaccine to help accelerate the end of the pandemic.
But this idea has met with opposition from pharmaceutical companies, who believe that due to the complexity of the manufacturing process, they need to oversee any technology transfer.
Pfizer and its partner BioNTech each reached an agreement with Biovac in South Africa in July to help them produce approximately 100 million doses of COVID-19 vaccine for Africa each year. Their lens is the same as Moderna’s, using the so-called mRNA technology.
However, the deal is to “fill and complete” the vaccine, which is the final stage of production, where the product is put into vials, sealed and packaged for transportation. It does not include the complicated process of mRNA production, which Pfizer and BioNTech will do in their European factories.
Neither person responded to requests for comment.
The WHO has been trying to persuade Moderna and Pfizer BioNTech to join forces with its African Technology Transfer Center.
But COVID-19 vaccine manufacturers warn that unauthorized manufacturers will compete for important raw materials and production equipment that these established companies (most of which make huge profits from vaccination) rely on.
Hub consortium partner Afrigen Biologics will produce the first batch of vaccines, and then transfer the skills and technology to the local manufacturing partner Biovac Institute-both located in Cape Town-will mass-produce the vaccine.
“This is not something we ask the industry to provide us for free,” Fried said of negotiating with these companies to obtain information, adding that royalties, geographic restrictions and other restrictions can be included in the transaction.
Healthcare analysts doubt the plan can be launched quickly.
Prashant Yadav, a global healthcare supply chain expert at the Global Development Center in Washington, said: “There are many steps that require a lot of iteration to prepare for prime-time commercial-grade production.”
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