In an effort to increase access to mRNA vaccines for defence against multiple diseases in Africa, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation will donate $40 million, including to a Belgian biotech business and two top African vaccine producers.
The Institut Pasteur de Dakar in Senegal and Biovac in South Africa will each receive $5 million to purchase the technology, with the Nivelles-based Quantoom Biosciences receiving $20 million to advance development of their mRNA synthesis platform. For usage of the platform by other vaccine makers, an additional $10 million is made accessible.
The world’s reaction to the COVID-19 pandemic was revolutionised by mRNA-based vaccines, yet access to them was wildly unequal. Since then, a number of projects have been launched to address this and attempt to harness the new technology for current dangers like malaria and tuberculosis that unfairly afflict low-income nations.
The world’s reaction to the COVID-19 pandemic was revolutionised by mRNA-based vaccines, yet access to them was wildly unequal. Since then, a number of programmes have been launched to address this and try to apply the new technology for current concerns, such as malaria and tuberculosis, which disproportionately affect lower-income nations.
In April of this year, the World Health Organisation opened its mRNA vaccine technology centre in Cape Town. One participant, Afrigen Biologics, has already created the first mRNA vaccine for COVID-19 in Africa in a laboratory setting. However, mRNA vaccines are still expensive to make, especially at the volume required for testing and distributing secure and reliable immunisations.
A Gates Foundation women representative on Monday said that Quantoom’s platform, termed Ntensify, enables batches of mRNA to be manufactured more effectively and affordably at scale.
“(This) is an important and necessary step towards vaccine self-reliance in the region,” said Dr Amadou Sall, chief executive of the Institut Pasteur de Dakar.
Gates provided funds to Quantoom’s parent firm, Univercells, in 2016, which was used to create Ntensify.
The technology is already being utilised by Afrigen, especially for the creation of vaccines against gonorrhoea and Rift Valley disease. Compared to conventional mRNA technology, Gates and Afrigen said it might reduce the cost of manufacturing a vaccine by half.
Petro Terblanche, chief executive of Afrigen, stated over the phone from Dakar on Sunday that the goal of the second generation of mRNA was to lower the price.
