Six African countries to adopt mRNA injection technology in WHO project

The World Health Organization said on Friday six African countries - Egypt, Kenya, Nigeria, Senegal, South Africa and Tunisia - would be the first on the continent to receive the technology needed to produce mRNA vaccines.

The technology transfer project, launched last year in Cape Town, aims to help low- and middle-income countries manufacture mRNA vaccines at scale and according to international standards. The WHO established its global mRNA technology transfer hub after large-scale vaccine purchases by wealthy countries and companies prioritising sales to governments that could pay the highest price.

In June last year, the WHO selected a consortium of South African companies to run the global mRNA hub, with Afrigen Biologics later using Moderna’s publicly available vaccine sequence to produce its own version of the U.S. company’s COVID shot.

South African President Cyril Ramaphosa urged the global vaccine distribution scheme COVAX and vaccines alliance GAVI to buy vaccines from local manufacturing hubs. “Organizations such as COVAX and GAVI need to commit to buying vaccines from local manufacturers instead of going outside of those hubs that have been set up.”