Cape Town (AFP)

South Africa, which campaigns for equitable access to anti-Covid vaccines, has embarked on the design of the first African messenger RNA (mRNA) vaccine, to end the continent's dependence on vis rich countries.

The innovative mRNA technology involves injecting strands of genetic instructions into the body that tell the patient's cells what to make to fight the disease.

The process is used by the American laboratories Moderna and Pfizer-BioNTech for their anti-Covid vaccines.

Supported by the World Health Organization (WHO), the South African biotechnology company Afrigen, based in Cape Town, is leading a pilot project that will use "reverse engineering" from an already existing vaccine, to reconstitute a formula similar to Moderna's mRNA vaccine.

The first doses should be ready for clinical trials within a year, according to Afrigen director Petro Terreblanche.

Negotiations are underway to obtain a license agreement with the American pharmaceutical giant for the production.

Research and development at the state-of-the-art facilities, which cost around 7.5 million euros, began three months ago.

An Afrigen laboratory in the Afrigen biotechnology center in Cape Town, October 5, 2021 RODGER BOSCH AFP

To date, barely 5% of eligible Africans are fully immunized.

Largely lagging behind the rest of the world, Africa is heavily dependent on imports and donated doses by rich countries.

- "A look-alike" -

"The bitter lesson we have learned from this pandemic is that Africa is almost entirely dependent" on vaccines produced outside the continent, Richard Mihigo, vaccine coordinator at WHO Africa, told AFP.

The Afrigen project aims to put an end to it by locally developing an innovative vaccine, adapted to conditions, particularly climatic conditions in Africa.

The director of Afrigen Petro Terreblanche at the company's premises in Cape Town, October 5, 2021 RODGER BOSCH AFP

"What we are looking for is a second generation vaccine," explains Martin Friede, vaccine coordinator for the WHO in Geneva.

"We have to start with a Moderna lookalike," he continues.

But the idea is to develop a vaccine "more suitable for low-income countries".

While existing mRNA vaccines should be stored at low temperatures, Afrigen's formulation will ideally require little or no refrigeration.

"Africa must become self-sufficient in vaccine production over the next 20 years," said Friede.

Once the formula is finalized, Afrigen plans to train other African countries to manufacture the vaccine.

South African Biovac, located in the same complex as Afrigen, will be the first to produce the new vaccine on a commercial scale.

- Licences -

Created by Unitaid - an international organization for purchasing medicines for poor countries - the Medicines Patent Pool (MPP), which negotiates treatment licenses with patent holders, is leading talks with Moderna.

Doctor Caryn Fenner, technical director of Afrigen, October 5, 2021 RODGER BOSCH AFP

With any luck, "we might get a deal that they don't enforce their patents," MPP director Charles Gore said last month.

Pharmaceutical giants have so far resisted pressure to lift patents on anti-Covid vaccines.

South Africa and India in the lead have campaigned for a temporary lifting allowing countries in need of doses to locally produce cheaper generics.

Last week, Moderna announced plans to build a state-of-the-art mRNA factory in Africa that will produce up to 500 million doses of vaccine per year.

For the moment, neither date nor place has been specified.

The Afrigen project is funded by the WHO Covax initiative for equitable access to vaccines.

An employee of Afrigen, in Cape Town on October 5, 2021 RODGER BOSCH AFP

South Africa is officially the African country most affected by the pandemic, with more than 2.9 million cases and 88,300 deaths.

Doses of the vaccine from the American laboratory Johnson & Johnson are packaged by the pharmaceutical giant Aspen in Gqeberha (east).

And a similar agreement was made between the American laboratories Pfizer and South African Biovac in Cape Town.

Several other anti-Covid vaccine production projects in Africa are under study, in Algeria, Morocco, Egypt, Nigeria, Rwanda and Senegal.

© 2021 AFP