The World Health Organization announced on Monday that Sinergium Biotech, a company that develops bird flu vaccines, will provide manufacturers in low- and middle-income nations with access to its data in order to accelerate a fair pandemic rollout.
The Argentine private sector biopharmaceutical company is at an early stage of developing mRNA vaccines against the H5N1 virus and has pledged to share its findings with a network of partner manufacturers set up by the WHO during the peak of COVID-19 to help poorer countries to gain access to life-saving medical tools.
Until now, the WHO has assisted partners but this is the first time one of them with a vaccine in development has volunteered to share it with others.
“Partners interested in this will be able to start getting their fingers wet, beginning to practice with an H5N1 candidate so that if a pandemic where to start … they would already have the necessary tools in their facilities,” said Dr Martin Friede, head of the WHO vaccine research unit.
The WHO’s mRNA technology transfer hub scheme comprises manufacturers from 15 countries, albeit not all are completely developed. Biovac in South Africa and Institut Pasteur in Senegal are two of the organizations collaborating in the scheme.
The South African institute was established when multinational pharmaceutical companies such as Moderna and Pfizer (PFE.N) declined to give technological know-how to replicate their COVID vaccines, citing intellectual property issues.
Following the outbreak of H5N1 in dairy cows and some agricultural workers in the United States, Washington awarded Moderna $176 million to further the development of its bird flu vaccine.
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Source: BS
