South Africa To Become Vaccine Production Center, The President: It's Changing Africa's Narrative

Ilustrasi vaksin COVID-19. (Wikimedia Commons / Ministry of Defense of Peru)

JAKARTA - Africa is working with the European Union and other partners to help create regional vaccine manufacturing centers in South Africa, Senegal and Rwanda, with Nigeria under consideration, said World Trade Organization (WTO) Director-General Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala.

The construction of a vaccine center in Africa aims to promise a more secure supply, to anticipate future health crises.

"We have now seen that excessive centralization of vaccine production capacity is incompatible with equitable access in a crisis situation", Okonjo-Iweala said.

"Regional production centers together with open supply chains offer a more promising path to preparedness for future health crises", he said.

Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala. (Wikimedia Commons/World Trade Organization)

Meanwhile, the World Health Organization (WHO) said the establishment of a technology transfer center in South Africa, providing opportunities for African countries to produce a COVID-19 vaccine, was welcomed by South African President Cyrill Ramaphosa as a historic step.

"The technology transfer center allows African companies to start producing mRNA vaccines, the advanced technology now used in vaccine manufacturing from Pfizer and Moderna, in just nine to 12 months", the WHO said.

Separately, WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said the move was aimed at increasing access to vaccines across the African continent, where infections and deaths from coronavirus have increased by nearly 40 percent over the past week.

"WHO is in discussions with a consortium of companies and institutions to build a technology transfer center in South Africa, involving the Afrigen Biologics & Vaccines company which will act as a hub both by producing the mRNA vaccine itself and by providing training to Biovac manufacturers", he explained.

WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus. (Wikimedia Commons/ITU Pictures)

Meanwhile, WHO Chief Scientist Soumya Swaminathan said there are several options in this regard, especially for small companies and biotech. Pfizer, together with Moderna, are the main producers of COVID-19 vaccines that use mRNA technology.

"We are also in discussions with larger mRNA companies and really hope they will join. We can see within nine to 12 months the vaccine is produced in Africa, South Africa", he said.

South African President Cyrill Ramaphosa welcomed the initiative, changing the African narrative that has been synonymous with being called the epicenter of disease and poor development.

"This important initiative is a major step forward in international efforts to build vaccine development, as well as production capacity that will put Africa on a path of self-determination", Ramaphosa said.

"Today is historic and we see this as a step in the right direction, but it does not distract us from our initial proposals drawn up by India and South Africa".

He added that the even distribution of vaccines illustrates that those in rich countries have lives 'more valuable' than those in poor countries.