WHO director-general due in Cape Town to visit Covid facilities

The World Health Organization’s (WHO) director-general Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus is due in Cape Town on Friday to visit the continent’s first and only mRNA vaccine tech transfer hub. 

Ghebreyesus will be joined by Belgium Minister of Development Cooperation Meryame Kitir. The pair will visit all facilities playing critical roles in the country’s response to Covid-19 on Friday and Saturday. 

These include African Biologics and Vaccines, the Biomedical Research Institute at Stellenbosch University, and South African vaccine producer Biovac, among others. 

South Africa’s cohort will consist of Health Minister Joe Phaahla and Higher Education, Science and Innovation Deputy Minister Buti Manamela. 

ALSO READ: SA firm makes own vaccine for poor nations

mRNA vaccine transfer hub 

Launched in July last year, the vaccine technology transfer hub, based at Afrigen Biologics in Cape Town, shares technology and technical know-how with local producers. 

This helps provide a range of services along the vaccine value chain, both locally and throughout Africa. Such a facility also helps increase local vaccine production capacity.

The hub was an initiative supported by WHO, the Medicines Patent Pool and Covax. 

Afrigen establishes mRNA vaccine production technology, the South African Medical Research Council provides research, and Biovac produces the vaccines. 

Afrigen announced last week it had successfully made its first vaccine, which will be ready for human clinical trials in November. 

Tests on animals will start in March.

Afrigen researchers sequenced the publicly available genetic code that Moderna used to make their vaccine, made the DNA, the RNA and produced their own shot.

Their mRNA vaccine can be kept at warmer temperatures, making them easier to store in low- and middle-income settings.

The original jab requires expensive -25°C to -15°C refrigeration. 

ALSO READ: SA biotech firm Afrigen makes Africa’s first mRNA vaccine

Compiled by Nica Richards. Additional reporting by AFP.