While Western donors have stumped up significant funding for a programme to make Covid-19 vaccines in Africa, activists say more support is needed to help poor countries secure the intellectual property rights they need to produce mRNA vaccines beyond the pandemic.
Grants and loans from Western countries, including France, have driven momentum for a"made in Africa" vaccine.for the global south is well-funded at 80 percent of the total needed, says Charles Gore, executive director of the Medicines Patent Pool , a public health body assisting the project with licensing and fundraising.
The five-year agreement allows developing countries to produce vaccines, or the ingredients necessary to make them, without the consent of the patent holders - and then to export them to other low-income countries. The WHO's hub-and-spokes project is designed to remedy two gaping disparities between rich and poor countries: lack of technology and lack of training.
Although Moderna initially said it would partner with the WHO programme, it later pulled out leaving Afrigen and its partners to develop its own Covid mRNA vaccine based on information about Moderna's formula that was available in the public domain.
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