Please see below articles on where we have been featuring world wide. Be sure to visit our social pages for more updates.
World Immunization Week (WIW), celebrated in the last week of April, aims to highlight the importance of vaccines and how they protect people of all ages against many diseases, giving us the opportunity to pursue a life well-lived.
The 2022 theme “Long Life for All” aims to unify people around the idea that vaccines make it possible for us to follow our dreams, protect our loved ones and live a long, healthy life.
We celebrate the many women around the world contributing to #science and #innovationforeveryone 👩🏾🔬
Ministère des Affaires étrangères français Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation Biovac Afrigen Biologics (Pty) Ltd Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (Africa CDC) African Union World Health Organization Unitaid
Thermo Fisher Scientific in partnership with Afrigen Biologics (Pty) Ltd and Labotec to drive mRNA vaccine development and supply in South Africa and beyond. View here
#development #thermofisherscientific
In January, Cape Town-based biotechnology company Afrigen Biologics announced that it has successfully produced a lab-scale batch of a COVID-19 vaccine that is similar to that made by pharmaceutical company Moderna. The achievement is particularly impressive since the vaccine uses the still relatively new mRNA vaccine technology. The achievement billed as the first successful “reverse engineering” of Moderna’s vaccine, has been hailed as an important milestone towards building capacity in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs) to manufacture COVID-19 vaccines. Read More
Less than 20% of Africans are fully vaccinated against COVID-19. But vaccine inequity exists within Africa as well as between the continent and the rest of the world, with some countries having vaccinated less than 1% of their populations.
This session addresses solutions to vaccine inequity, highlighting issues of availability, accessibility, and affordability, as well as the role of philanthrocapitalism. Speakers will discuss the continent’s efforts to create its own locally-produced COVID-19 vaccine, skepticism and misinformation, and supply chain issues. https://lnkd.in/dg-cV-PR
From the outset of the COVID-19 outbreak, MPP realised that equitable access to treatments would be essential in the fight against this global threat. MPP issued a statement on 5 February 2020 offering its expertise to support access to treatment through its voluntary licensing mechanism in low- and middle- income countries. On 31 March 2020, MPP’s Board decided to expand MPP’s mandate to include any health technology that could contribute to the global response to COVID-19 and where licensing could facilitate innovation and accelerate access. Read more here
A need for equity in access to COVID-19 vaccines – The mRNA vaccine Technology Transfer Hub was established in response of the flagrant inequities in access to COVID-19 vaccines in low- and middle-income countries, especially in Africa. Formally established in July 2021, the purpose of the hub is to increase access to mRNA vaccines made closer to home by establishing manufacturing capacity using a technology transfer hub model to ensure sustainable vaccine security in future pandemics.
Unfounded rumours have been circulating that the mRNA vaccine technology transfer hub being established in South Africa with the support of the Government of South Africa, the African CDC, the World Health Organization and the Medicines Patent Pool, intends to infringe patents. The Medicines Patent Pool, which is responsible for the intellectual property and licensing elements of the hub, wishes to make it clear that this is not the case. MPP will ensure that technology used in the hub is either not covered by patents or that licences and/or commitments-not-to-enforce are in place to enable freedom to operate. The Medicines Patent Pool’s model of public health
Petro Terblanche is the managing director of a Afrigen,a South African biotechnology company working with the WHO to produce an Covid-10 mRNA vaccine that is similar to the one produced by Moderna.She speaks to the BBC’s Laura Trevelyan on their efforts and what it could mean to countries across the Global South. VIEW THE VIDEO HERE!
The World Health Organization this week announced it will establish its first-ever mRNA technology transfer hub in the city in an agreement with Afrigen Biologics & Vaccines and the Biovac Institute. Once a technology transfer agreement has been signed, Afrigen will perfect the process and make sure the vaccines produced at its laboratory are of acceptable quality. Afrigen was founded in 2014 as a venture between the government’s Industrial Development Corporation and the US’s Infectious Disease Research Institute. A facility in
Afrigen Biologics and Vaccines is a Cape Town based biotechnology company strategically directed, supported and capitalized by Avacare Healthcare Group and the Industrial Development Corporation (IDC) of South Africa. It was founded in 2014 by Steven G. Reed (PhD) and Erik Iverson (JD, LLM), both of the Infectious Diseases Research Institute (IDRI) www.idri.org in Seattle. Afrigen drives a business strategy focussing on product development, bulk adjuvant manufacturing, and supply and distribution of key biologicals to address unmet healthcare needs. Through international partnerships and local capacity building, Afrigen has established the first ever adjuvant production and formulation technology centre on the African continent. This centre, in partnership with IDRI, a world leader in adjuvant development, focuses on next generation vaccine adjuvants, which are not only geared at preventing disease, but have therapeutic value. These adjuvants confer added potency and durability to vaccines. More recently, Afrigen has ventured into the novel CAM’s space where it aims to bring innovative, differentiated products to market.
MORE ABOUT US
– Bulk water soluble, nanosomal CBD
Specialised equipment commonly used in the formulation industry is housed at our R&D laboratories in Cape Town. Afrigen’s highly trained and experienced scientific staff assist with protocol development, validation and analyses. Accurate, reliable and timeous results performed in accordance with GLP principles are provided. Afrigen offers services to collaborators and outside organisations in two key areas:
– AfrigenCompounding Solutions
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April, 2022Comments