Sustained vaccine expertise, I.P, and manufacturing capacity required for vaccine sovereignty in Africa.
Scientists at Wits University say that for Africa to achieve vaccine sovereignty, the continent must build and sustain its own vaccine expertise, intellectual property and manufacturing capacity to reduce its dependence on technologies and supplies from elsewhere.
Vaccines are a cornerstone of global health security and have enabled achievements including the eradication of smallpox and the near elimination of poliovirus.
But Africa’s efforts to manufacture more of its own vaccines will depend on developing African scientific expertise, intellectual property and viable biotechnology industries. Currently, only 1% of vaccines dispensed are manufactured locally. The African Centres for Disease Control and Prevention has thus endeavoured to increase vaccine production to 60% by 2040.
Scientists at the Antiviral Gene Therapy Research Unit (AGTRU) and the Synthetic Organic Chemistry Group at Wits University have identified some of the barriers that must be overcome before a sustainable, end-to-end production ecosystem can be established.
Their investigations were published in Communications Medicine, a Springer Nature journal.
In particular, the team has honed in on the strategic importance of mRNA vaccine technologies in building greater public health independence across Africa.
mRNA vaccine technology uses laboratory-made genetic instructions to instruct the body’s cells to produce a harmless piece of a pathogen, prompting an immune response that prepares the body to fight the real infection.
However, mRNA vaccines are not a panacea and will need to form part of a broader vaccine-development ecosystem that includes recombinant viral vaccines, protein subunit vaccines and other established and emerging technologies.
The Covid-19 pandemic exposed the risks of relying heavily on vaccines developed and manufactured elsewhere. Although vaccines were developed at unprecedented speed, distribution remained deeply unequal, leaving many low- and middle-income countries vulnerable to delayed and insufficient supplies.
“One of mRNA’s greatest advantages is its speed. It can be used to identify and test promising vaccine targets relatively quickly, generating knowledge that can then support the development of vaccines using other platforms,” says Dr Kristie Bloom, senior researcher at the Antiviral Gene Therapy Research Unit.
One example of African-led innovation highlighted in the paper is the development of vaccine-delivery compounds from cashew nut shell liquid by researchers at Wits.
Cashew nut shells are widely available in Africa and are generally treated as agricultural waste. Wits scientists have used compounds extracted from this waste material to develop ionisable lipids, which are essential components of the lipid nanoparticles that protect mRNA and deliver it into cells.
The lipids have performed efficiently in preclinical vaccine formulations and are cheaper to produce than some currently licensed alternatives.
They could also help African vaccine manufacturers reduce their reliance on technologies controlled by a small number of international patent holders.
“By turning an abundant waste material into potentially valuable African-owned intellectual property, the research illustrates why vaccine independence must involve mastery and ownership of the underlying science, rather than simply operating imported manufacturing systems,” says Patrick Arbuthnot, Emeritus Professor at the Antiviral Gene Therapy Research Unit.
The World Health Organization and Medicines Patent Pool established the mRNA Technology Transfer Programme following the success of mRNA vaccines during the Covid-19 pandemic.
Afrigen Biologics and Vaccines in Cape Town was selected as the programme’s central hub, with knowledge and technology transferred to manufacturing partners through a hub-and-spoke model.
During the early stages of the programme, the Antiviral Gene Therapy Research Unit adapted its expertise in therapeutic mRNA for vaccine production and transferred this knowledge to Afrigen.
The paper argues that the next phase must focus on sustaining these gains through continued investment, building African-owned intellectual property, appropriate regulatory capacity, government procurement and functioning markets for locally produced vaccines.
“Facilities, scientific teams and manufacturing systems cannot survive indefinitely without viable products and reliable demand,” says Professor Charles de Koning, Director of the Synthetic Organic Chemistry Group.
mRNA vaccines therefore offer Africa a way to respond to the next pandemic and, most notably, an opportunity to deepen scientific expertise, create locally owned technology and strengthen the continent’s ability to protect the health of its people.
*The paper’s authors are Patrick Arbuthnot, Kristie Bloom, Dylan Kairuz, Connor Stockley, Robin Klintworth, Charles de Koning and Abdullah Ely.
-Wits University