South Africa’s vaccine hub

In June 2021, at the height of Covid-19 vaccine inequality around the world, the WHO backed a radical project which aims to break the stranglehold that big pharma corporations enjoy over the distribution of life-saving vaccines. The mRNA Technology Transfer Hub, as it is known, brings together a group of scientists and manufacturers to work out how mRNA technology works, share that knowledge with others, particularly in Africa, and set up production outside the hands of big pharma. Already the hub has managed to successfully reverse engineer Moderna’s Covid-19 vaccine and its scientists are now working on turning their successful experiments into vaccine production. Even more importantly, they have started sharing their breakthrough with scientists in other countries.

During a pandemic when global north governments have pursued vaccine nationalism and pharma companies have exploited the crisis to make windfall profits, this project emerging in South Africa has shown that global south countries can build something better. The hub, based at a company called Afrigen in Cape Town, aims to prove that we don’t have to hand our medical needs over to big business to make vast amounts of money for their shareholders by monopolising know-how. Rather, we can build a collaborative model, where we freely share knowledge and distribute research and production around the world. The trip was only possible thanks to the incredible generosity of Global Justice Now supporters, who have got right behind this project of international solidarity.

We and our partners in the global south are working to make sure the hub has strong political backing, especially as the big pharmaceutical corporations are already lobbying against it. Up to now, the British government has consistently cosied up to big pharma, fiercely opposing the waiver of intellectual property rules on Covid-related medicines and equipment before diluting an already weak agreement at the World Trade Organisation this summer. Rather than backing the hub, the UK has studiously avoided mentioning it, potentially a bad harbinger for the future. Organising a delegation from parliament was an important step in building

The South African vaccine hub taking on big pharma

In September, Global Justice Now organised a parliamentary and media delegation to a ground-breaking vaccine project in Cape Town, TIM BIERLEY reports.

© Alfonso Andrew Stoffels

Above: Sindiswa Zibaye, a community health committee member in Gugulethu township, Cape Town, joined the delegation.

Right: SNP international development spokesperson Chris Law MP (centre) was part of the visit to the mRNA vaccine hub.

support for the hub in the UK, and we also wanted to make sure the international media understands what is at stake.

TOO IMPORTANT

On a tour of the facility, Caryn Fenner, the technical director at Afrigen, described how the hub was launched during perhaps the worst period of vaccine inequality, when even as rich countries were rolling out booster shots, most health workers in Africa hadn’t received a single jab. But the rapid development of technology and upskilling of workers means countries like South Africa could be in a better position to meet future health crises head-on. Crucially, mRNA isn’t just a useful tool in fighting Covid-19. It could be vital in fighting many other diseases, including HIV, malaria and certain types of cancer. Clearly, this knowledge is too important to be hoarded by one or two companies. The hub has taken a necessary but bold move in issuing a challenge to the pharmaceutical establishment that guards its patents closely and keeps legal teams on speed-dial. As one young scientist put it: “If we weren’t doing this here, it probably wouldn’t be happening at all.”

After visiting the vaccines hub, we were invited to meet some community health workers in the township of Gugulethu, on the outskirts of the city, who provided frontline care during the pandemic. They told us about their sense of duty to help their neighbours, even while they had no access to the vaccine, and described the spirit of solidarity at that time. It was a stark contrast with the cynical attitude of pharma companies, which resisted all collaboration, even as they shattered revenue records. Most of the community health workers are unpaid and we heard how the health system is under deep strain, like so many others around the world. Activists we spoke to made clear the link between this and the extortionate sums South Africa spends on medicines, not helped by lax patent laws and the predatory pharma companies that take advantage of them to charge eye-watering prices.

The delegation also heard from veterans of the struggle against big pharma control of AIDS drugs, who explained that this disregard for the health of people in the global south is ingrained in the system. Several activists also highlighted how huge funds were mobilised to combat Covid-19 when it hit the global north, while diseases like TB and malaria, which also kill millions of people every year, receive far less attention. It was particularly significant, then, when we were informed that the hub has started work on the design for a new TB vaccine. There is still a long way to go, but with the determination of a growing network of dedicated scientists, a fairer pharma system could be possible.

Tim Bierley is the pharma campaign manager at Global Justice Now.

© Alfonso Andrew Stoffels