Title

A South African Company Addresses Vaccine Supply Inequity, Despite Canada’s Lack of Support

Authors

Matthew Herder, Dalhousie University - Schulich School of LawFollow
E. Richard Gold, Faculty of Law and Faculty of Medicine, McGill University

Document Type

News Article

Publication Date

2022

Keywords

COVID-19, Coronavirus, South Africa, Moderna, COVID-19 Vaccines, Public Health, Knowledge Sharing, Pfizer-BioNTech Vaccine, Health Care Access, Vaccination Access, Supply Inequity, Canada, Global South

Abstract

Since late 2020, the inequitable access across the globe to COVID-19 vaccines has been a glaring problem. But a remarkable achievement earlier this month offers hope that the supply of vaccines to developing countries will improve: Afrigen Biologics, a South African based company, produced its own version of Moderna’s mRNA COVID-19 vaccine. This was achieved with no support from Moderna or Pfizer-BioNTech, the manufacturer of the other mRNA vaccine.

What many don’t realize is that two Canadian companies control a key component of the mRNA vaccines. Busy fighting over their lucrative patent rights, there is no sign they shared their technology with Afrigen either.

Creative Commons License

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-No Derivative Works 4.0 International License.

Recommended Citation

Matthew Herder & E Richard Gold, "A South African Company Addresses Vaccine Supply Inequity, Despite Canada’s Lack of Support", The Conversation (28 February 2022), online: < theconversation.com > [perma.cc/X5RN-HVV7].