South Africa create its own version of Moderna vaccine

South African scientists have created a replica of the Moderna Covid vaccine, which they believe will assist raise immunisation rates across Africa. The continent currently has the world's lowest Covid shot uptake.

Afrigen Biologics, the firm behind the new vaccine, said clinical testing would begin in November.

Moderna previously stated that it would not pursue its vaccine patents, allowing Cape Town experts to develop their own version. The World Health Organization backed the researchers (WHO).

Afrigen Biologics' director, Petro Terblanche, said the company was starting modest but had big plans to grow soon.

He told the BBC, "We used the sequence, which is the same sequence as the Moderna vaccination 1273."

"This is part of a global initiative to help low- and middle-income nations become self-sufficient through building capacity and capability."

The vaccine being reproduced is a messenger RNA vaccine developed by Moderna in the United States. Pfizer-BioNTech used the same method to create its vaccine. They were among the first Covid vaccines to be approved for use globally.

Rather than injecting a weakened or inactivated germ into the body, this sort of vaccine instructs cells how to manufacture a protein that will trigger an immune response inside our bodies.

Dr Caryn Fenner, the company's chief scientist, termed the achievement "very remarkable."

"It gives us the ability to make our own vaccines in the future, to be prepared for future pandemics, to produce clinical trial material on African soil, and then to look at other diseases of relevance in Africa," says the author.

In comparison to 60 percent in North America, 63 percent in Europe, and 61 percent in Asia, several African countries have only vaccinated less than 10% of their populations. Despite having one of the highest vaccination rates on the continent, South Africa only has 27 percent of its population inoculated.

BioNTech, the startup that teamed with Pfizer to develop an mRNA vaccine, is planning to construct a vaccine manufacturing unit on the continent, according to reports.

In Africa, a number of additional Covid-19 vaccine production facilities are in the works, primarily for Russian and Chinese-made vaccines.