Covid, WHO announcement: 'Six African countries will produce mRNA vaccines'

By Cristiano Antonino On Feb 18, 2022

The six African countries that will produce mRNA Covid vaccines are Senegal, South Africa, Tunisia, Nigeria, Kenya and Egypt

Six African countries – Senegal, South Africa, Tunisia, Nigeria, Kenya and Egypt – will receive the technology to produce mRna Covid-19 vaccines locally as part of a know-how transfer initiative to develop immunisers promoted by the World Health Organisation (WHO).

This was announced today by the director-general of the UN body, Tedros Ghebreyesus, during an event organised as part of the EU-African Union summit that began yesterday in Brussels

The press conference was also attended by the President of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, the President of the Council of Europe, Charles Michel, the South African Head of State, Cyril Ramaphosa, and the President of France, Emmanuel Macron, who is also President of the EU.

According to the WHO website, the initiative was made possible by the technology transfer hub for mRNA vaccines set up by the organisation last June

A South African consortium made up of Afrigen Biologics, the South African Medical Research Council (Samrc) and the pharmaceutical company Biovac will manage production on the continent.

The mRNA technology has been used to produce vaccines by Moderna, Pfizer and Biontech.

The UN body then announced that the next steps would be ‘to work with partners in beneficiary countries to develop a roadmap and put in place the necessary training and support so that they can start producing vaccines as soon as possible’.

According to Ramaphosa, technology transfer is a sign of “mutual recognition of what we can all bring to the cause” as well as being an “investment in our economies and infrastructures and, in many ways, also a return to the continent”.

The President of the African Union, Macky Sall, stressed that the long-term goal is to “produce in Africa 60% of the vaccines that will be administered on the continent”.

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