Successful mRNA Vaccine Replication in South Africa... Will It Resolve Imbalance? [Reading Science]

[Image source=Yonhap News]

[Asia Economy Reporter Kim Bong-su] A bio company in South Africa has succeeded in replicating a messenger ribonucleic acid (mRNA) COVID-19 vaccine. This is expected to become a new option amid calls for expanding vaccine distribution in underdeveloped countries to prevent other variants.

According to the international academic journal Nature on the 4th, 'Afrigen Biologics & Vaccines' based in Cape Town, South Africa, succeeded in replicating an mRNA vaccine for the COVID-19 virus using the same data without Moderna's assistance. In this regard, the World Health Organization (WHO) has been working since June last year to establish a COVID-19 mRNA vaccine supply hub in South Africa to supply underdeveloped countries worldwide. In particular, it requested technology transfer from global bio companies such as Moderna and Pfizer, which developed the existing mRNA vaccines. However, both companies did not respond, and WHO decided to replicate Moderna's vaccine, whose development-related information is relatively well disclosed. Moderna also promised not to assert patent rights as long as the COVID-19 pandemic continues.

Accordingly, researchers gathered from Germany, France, Belgium, and South Africa started a vaccine replication project in September last year with the research team at the University of the Witwatersrand in Johannesburg. They began creating the DNA molecules necessary for producing the vaccine using mRNA manufacturing technology that Stanford University researchers publicly released on the internet in April last year. Despite raw material supply issues, they finally succeeded in early December last year. Subsequently, Afrigen's research team succeeded on the 5th of last month in the most challenging process of inserting mRNA molecules into lipid nanoparticles made of lipid mixtures. The research team used a commonly available different type of lipid mixture rather than the specific lipid mixture used by Moderna. In the coming weeks, they will produce the final prototype using Moderna's lipid mixture and conduct performance comparison experiments with existing vaccines.

Many scientists worldwide contributed to this process, including numerous researchers from the U.S. National Institutes of Health (NIH), who developed the original technology for mRNA vaccines. Petro Terblanche, director of Afrigen, said, "Many very special scientists felt disillusioned with the imbalance in vaccine distribution and seemed to want to help the world escape this dilemma."

This success in replicating the COVID-19 vaccine is expected to be an opportunity to improve the long-standing global imbalance in vaccine supply and inoculation. Developers of mRNA vaccines such as Moderna and Pfizer sold 70% of their production to wealthy countries and did not fulfill orders from underdeveloped countries in the southern hemisphere on time. As a result, the vaccination completion rate in African countries remains at about 10%. In contrast, wealthy countries such as the United States, the United Kingdom, and Israel have mostly completed second doses and many have received third doses, highlighting the severe imbalance in vaccine distribution and inoculation. Global epidemic experts point out that this situation is a key factor that encourages the emergence of other malignant variant viruses, making it difficult to end the pandemic.

WHO stated that many steps remain before the newly developed replicated vaccine can be fully produced and supplied to underdeveloped countries such as those in Africa, and it will not help resolve the pandemic within this year at the earliest. However, it is seen as a foundation for balancing mRNA vaccine distribution in the future.