In Other News

IN OTHER NEWS

BY CHARNDRÉ EMMA KIPPIE

Scaling Up: SA joins vaccine technology-transfer hub

South Africa is all set to become the continent’s first mRNA Vaccine Manufacturing Hub

A turning point for SA

At the end of June, President Cyril Ramaphosa made the announcement that South Africa would be getting a new hub intended for manufacturing vaccines. This good news comes just as French President Emmanuel Macron pledged his support for the concept of the hub and future initiatives geared towards combating the global pandemic we are currently facing.

Hon.Ramaphosa has expressed that even though this is a truly historic moment for our nation, specifically, this will not deter South Africa from pushing the waiver of the agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS) in order to sanction the manufacturing of vaccines in less developed countries. The President conveyed the news and his sentiments during a joint press conference with French President Macron on Monday, 21 June. The conference was facilitated by the World Health Organisation (WHO). During the conference Macron indicated that he and Ramaphosa had now forged a good ‘friendship’, expressing that this collaboration came as a result of his state visit to South Africa at the end of May.

Partnering for acceleration

South Africa’s Biovac Institute already partners with France, and has now also partnered with Afrigen Biologics and Vaccines - a large nexus of universities.

Our country has, in addition, partnered with the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention. The coming together of all partners is geared towards establishing Africa’s first Covid messenger RNA vaccine technology transfer hub.

On 16 April this year, the The World Health Organisation (WHO) called for an Expression of Interest to form such hubs in order to step up production and access to Covid-19 vaccines. President Ramaphosa conveyed that the hub was just the beginning of a process in which we are now forging a clearer path for health security for the global communities’ most vulnerable citizens. H.E. Ramaphosa indicated that “We would like the negotiations taking place [on the TRIPS waiver] to proceed with speed.”

“People in Africa are facing a rising wave of infections. In South Africa we are facing a third wave which seems to be more severe than the first and the second one and the only defence that we have is that we have vaccines.”

The idea behind founding technology transfer hubs is for these hubs to act as training facilities where the technology is set up at an industrial scale and for clinical development to be performed.

“Interested manufacturers from low- and middle-income countries can receive training and any necessary licenses to the technology. WHO and partners will bring in the production know-

To date, around 3.2-million South Africans have been vaccinated, thus far.

how, quality control and necessary licenses to a single entity to facilitate a broad and rapid technology transfer to multiple recipients”, stated a recent WHO release.

Bringing down the infection rate

At the briefing, many WHO officials highlighted the fact that current social prevention measures, such as regular handwashing, the wearing of a face mask and steering clear of crowds and closed spaces with bad ventilation, are still among the most effective actions for decreasing the possibility of furthering infections. President Ramaphosa added that the launch of this new initiative should not merely be viewed as benefiting South Africans, but instead the entire African continent and its people.

“The Covid-19 pandemic has revealed the full extent of the vaccine gap between developed and developing economies, and how that gap can severely undermine global health security”, said Hon. Ramaphosa.

“This landmark initiative is a major advance in the international effort to build vaccine development and manufacturing capacity that will put Africa on a path to self determination...South Africa welcomes the opportunity to host a vaccine technology transfer hub and to build on the capacity and expertise that already exists on the continent to contribute to this effort.”

Support from France

French President Macron agreed that it was indeed a step in the right direction for Africa and for all the individuals actively working towards garnering even-handed access to beneficial health products. Macron also expressed that France would continue to support initiatives in the future.

“I am proud for Biovac and our South African partners to have been selected by WHO, as France has been supporting them for years”, he said.

Official members from the WHO were unable to stipulate a conclusive timeline for how long it would take for the first vaccines to be manufactured through this new hub. However, it has been estimated that it could take 9 to 12 months to get the initiative off the ground.

Fast Facts on Covid in SA Today

• Africa’s low manufacturing capacity has previously been viewed as one of the biggest roadblocks to inoculating the continent.

• South Africa currently relies on around 31 million single-dose

Johnson & Johnson ordered vaccines, all of which are said to be delivered throughout the course of 2021.

• To date, around 3.2 million

South Africans (of SA’s 60 million people) have been vaccinated, thus far.

• As part of Phase 2 of the national vaccination drive,

South African residents aged 50 and above are now able to register and enrol to receive their jab via the Electronic

Vaccine Data System (EVDS).

• Last month it was announced that the Delta variant of

Covid-19 had reached South

Africa soil - which was first detected in India in late 2020. n