Scientists In South Africa Create First mRNA Vaccine From Public Moderna Data

Researchers at Afrigen Biologics and Vaccines, a South African biotechnology firm, recently announced that they’ve created a replica of Moderna’s mRNA COVID-19 vaccine.

This world-first is a major milestone for the technology transfer hub launched by the World Health Organization (WHO), which chose to use data from Moderna to allow lower-income countries to manufacture the vaccine. 

According to Nature, 70% of Moderna and Pfizer COVID-19 vaccines have been sent to developed nations, while millions of doses promised to less prosperous countries have been delayed or held back. 

“Moderna and Pfizer-BioNTech’s vaccines are mainly still going to just the richest countries. Our objective is to empower other countries to make their own,” explained Martin Friede, the WHO official overseeing the initiative. 

Furthermore, as per Reuters, this is the first mRNA vaccine designed, developed, and manufactured by scientists on the African continent. The technology will first go to Biovac, the nation’s partially state-owned vaccine producer.

Going forward, Afrigen has agreed to train laboratories in Argentina and Brazil to devise their own vaccines, as the major players haven’t provided any additional help. 

“We didn’t have help from the major COVID vaccine producers, so we did it ourselves to show the world that it can be done, and be done here, on the African continent,” said Gerhardt Boukes, Chief Scientist at Afrigen. 

Following this breakthrough, Afrigen will work on a future mRNA vaccine that doesn’t require refrigeration for storage, which would be more suited to the climate and infrastructure in Africa. 

“We will only make our clinical trial batch probably in six months from now, (meaning)… fit for humans. And the target is November 2022,” said Petro Terblanche, Managing Director at Afrigen. 

[via Nature and Reuters, cover image via Shutterstock]