Nigeria to receive technology for producing COVID-19 vaccines, says WHO DG

The World Health Organisation (WHO) says Nigeria has been selected as one of six countries to receive technology that is needed to produce MRNA (messenger ribonuclieic acid) vaccines.

The technology is used in producing COVID-19 vaccines.

According to a statement by the organisation, Tedros Ghebreyesu, its director-general, disclosed this at the European Union — African Union summit in Brussels on Thursday.

The other recipients of the technology include Egypt, Kenya, Senegal, South Africa and Tunisia.

MRNA vaccines are different from most vaccines which contain a weakened or inactive piece of the target virus which triggers the production of antibodies.

Instead these game-changing type of vaccines use laboratory engineering mRNA that give cells instructions on how to create a protein that resembles a piece of a protein found in the virus of concern — COVID-19 in this case.

This triggers the body to create antibodies to deactivate the foreign protein. The antibodies then linger in the body to fight subsequent infection from COVID-19. This technology is used in the production of Pfizer and Moderna COVID vaccines.

Ghebreyesus said the COVID-19 pandemic has shown that reliance on a few companies to supply global public goods is limiting and dangerous.

“In the mid- to long-term, the best way to address health emergencies and reach universal health coverage is to significantly increase the capacity of all regions to manufacture the health products they need, with equitable access as their primary endpoint,” he said.

Responding to the announcement, President Cyril Ramaphosa of South Africa said: “This is an initiative that will allow us to make our own vaccines and that, to us, is very important. It means mutual respect, mutual recognition of what we can all bring to the party, investment in our economies, infrastructure investment and, in many ways, giving back to the continent.”