US biotechnology company says it will permanently waive its Covid-19 vaccine patents for 92 low- and middle-income countries.
Moderna Inc has said it
plans to develop and begin testing vaccines targeting 15 of the
world’s most worrisome pathogens by 2025 and will permanently
waive its Covid-19 vaccine patents for shots intended for certain
low-and middle-income countries.
The US biotechnology company also said on Monday it will make its
messenger RNA (mRNA) technology available to researchers working
on new vaccines for emerging and neglected diseases through a
programme called mRNA Access.
Moderna announced its strategy ahead of the Global Pandemic
Preparedness Summit sponsored by the UK government and the
Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations (CEPI), an
international coalition set up five years ago to prepare for
future disease threats.
Moderna is already collaborating with partners on vaccines
against some of the 15 pathogens, which include Chikungunya,
Crimean-Congo hemorrhagic fever, Dengue, Ebola, Malaria,
Marburg, Lassa fever, MERS and Covid-19.
Those collaborations include a Nipah virus vaccine with the
US National Institutes of Health and an HIV vaccine with the
Gates Foundation and the International AIDS Vaccine Initiative,
Moderna President Stephen Hoge said in an interview.
The company will either seek out new partners for the others
or develop them internally, he said.
Moderna Chief Executive Stephane Bancel told a virtual press
briefing on Monday that the 15 viruses are known threats that
have not been addressed by many large drugmakers. The Covid-19
pandemic, which has killed six million people worldwide and
sickened millions more, has made clear that needs to change,
Bancel said.
“Too many lives were lost in the last few years,” he said.
Vaccine patents
Early in the Covid pandemic, Moderna pledged not to enforce
its vaccine patents during the emergency phase of the health
crisis.
That has allowed for the development of a vaccine manufacturing
plant in Africa backed by the World Health Organisation as part
of a pilot project to give poor and middle-income countries the
know-how to make Covid-19 vaccines.
Moderna said it will make that pledge permanent for the 92
low- and middle income countries that qualify for assistance
under the COVAX Advance Market Commitment (AMC) led by the GAVI
vaccine alliance.
A company spokesperson said Moderna will not enforce patents
for Covid-19 vaccines developed in South Africa by WHO-backed
Afrigen Biologics for AMC-92 low- and middle-income countries.
Although it will not enforce its patents in these countries,
Hoge said Moderna does not intend to share its vaccine
technology with the WHO-backed technology transfer hub in South
Africa, in spite of lobbying efforts by the
organisation.
Earlier on Monday, the company said it will set up a
manufacturing facility in Kenya, its first in Africa, to produce
mRNA vaccines, including against Covid-19.
Expanding discovery of vaccines
As part of its future pandemic plan, Moderna intends to make
its technology available to academic research labs to test its
own theories for vaccines to address emerging and neglected
diseases. Hoge said some of these may eventually result in
partnerships with Moderna to address the 15 priority pathogens.
“What we want to make sure happens is that scientists who
have great ideas for how they could make vaccines will be able
to access our standards and technology, almost as if they worked
at Moderna,” Hoge said.
Initially, the programme will start with a few academic labs,
but Hoge expects it to expand rapidly. He sees the programme as a
way to expand the discovery of vaccines using mRNA technology.
“We want to make sure that we allow others to explore the space that frankly, we can’t get to,” he said. “And that’s really what this is about.”
Source: Reuters
Moderna plots vaccines against 15 pathogens by 2025
Source: Pinay Pop Showbiz
