Vietnam, Bangladesh, Indonesia, Pakistan and Serbia will receive support from the global mRNA hub in South Africa, WHO said in a press conference on February 23. Those countries were vetted by a group of experts and proved that they had the capacity to absorb the technology and, with targeted training, move to production stage relatively quickly.
During the event, WHO also announced the establishment of a similar hub in the Republic of Korea. These hubs will serve all low- and middle-income countries wishing to produce biologicals, such as vaccines, insulin, monoclonal antibodies and cancer treatments.
“One of the key barriers to successful technology transfer in low- and middle-income countries is the lack of a skilled workforce and weak regulatory systems,” said WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus. “Building those skills will ensure that they can manufacture the health products they need at a good quality standard so that they no longer have to wait at the end of the queue.”
“Although Vietnam is a developing country, we have had a lot of experience in vaccine development over the past decades,” said Nguyen Thanh Long, Vietnamese Minister of Health in a virtual address.
“Our National Regulatory Authority (NRA) has also been recognised by WHO. We believe that in participating in this initiative, Vietnam will be able to produce the mRNA vaccine in large scale, not only for domestic consumption but also for other countries in the region and the world, contributing to reducing inequalities in access to vaccines,” Long said.
WHO has announced six African countries – Egypt, Kenya, Nigeria, Senegal, South Africa and Tunisia – and two Latin American nations – Argentina and Brazil – as the first on their continents to receive mRNA technology from the global hub in South Africa.
The global organisation said it is currently prioritising countries that do not have mRNA technology but already have some manufacturing infrastructure and capacity. It will enter into discussions with other interested countries and other mRNA technology recipients will be announced in the coming months. Training is expected to be provided for the selected countries from March.
