Cape Town - Young scientists were visibly elated while lining the entrance to the Afrigen Biologics & Vaccines facility, to warmly welcome World Health Organization (WHO) director-general, Tedros Ghebreyesus, accompanied by high level delegates to the facility.
Ghebreyesus is in Cape Town with a high level delegation, including Health Minister Dr Joe Phaahla and Higher Education, Science, and Technology Minister Blade Nzimande, who all met for the first face-to-face meeting at the Westin hotel, on Thursday.
The five-day meeting saw about 200 people participate, including manufacturing partners, experts, industry and civil society representatives, and funders, for a review of the progress made since WHO and Medicines Patent Pool launched this in June 2021.
Ghebreyesus said: “WHO believes that the mRNA Technology Transfer programme holds huge promise, not just for increasing access to vaccines against Covid-19 but for HIV and tuberculosis as well as other diseases affecting lower and middle income countries, for which there are either no vaccines or the vaccines inaccessible.
“For this reason, WHO is establishing an mRNA research and development network to provide a collaborative platform to expand the mRNA vaccine pipelines, and accelerate product development and access to know-how.”
Nzimande said they have acknowledged commitments by some IP (Intellectual Property) holders to relax IP pertaining to Covid-19 developments.
A vision of the mRNA Technology Transfer hub went beyond Covid-19 and would assist in future pandemics whose vaccines could use the same mRNA technology platforms, benefiting not only South Africa, but Africa and the developing world as a whole.
“We therefore appreciate ongoing efforts by the medicine patent pool to help us navigate this very difficult minefield of IP and freedom to operate,” Nzimande said.
Phaahla said: “We congratulate Afrigen and all those who have been involved in this process at the laboratory level. We wish you all the best as you move to scaling up and validating production in phase I and II clinical trials which will demonstrate whether this vaccine product candidate has acceptable safety and reactogenicity and immunogenicity, as compared to the commercially available mRNA products which are in the market currently.”
A ribbon-cutting ceremony was held for the inauguration of the mRNA Technology Hub facility at Afrigen in Montague Gardens.
Research technologist working primarily in the upstream part of the mRNA manufacturing process, Emile Hendricks, originally from Elsies River, said: “Inside this facility ... the reason it’s so special is that we have an end-toend manufacturing model in mind, in that we can develop an mRNA vaccine from its very conception.”
The launch was to indicate the facility’s preparedness to produce clinical trial materials, Hendricks said.