Mr. Dimitri Eynikel:

I can explain quite a bit about the project because we have been supportive of the initiative since the start. Faced with a lack of access to Covid-19 vaccines the WHO, together with a consortium in South Africa, developed a manufacturing and technology transfer hub. The idea was to produce Covid-19 mRNA vaccines and, potentially, use the technology afterwards for other diseases. That initiative asked two pharmaceuticals, BioNTech-Pfizer and Moderna, that use mRNA technology and have a product on the market, to share their technology and the rights with the initiative so they could set up a production network with different companies in Africa - so not only in South Africa but in other African countries - and share their technology and teach people how to use, produce and develop these vaccines. Moderna and BioNTech-Pfizer refused to share their technology, data and production knowledge. As a result the hub, in particular Afrigen, which is a small or medium-sized enterprise in South Africa, started together with the University of the Witwatersrand in Johannesburg to re-engineer the Moderna vaccine and see whether they could develop and produce a vaccine. Against the odds and expectations within six months they have succeeded in producing a test patch, which looks quite good, but now they will go into clinical trials, and this is another issue. The fact that data is not openly shared means that this whole production process and clinical trial on whether this product is safe and effective now must be done again, which already exists if Moderna or BioNTech-Pfizer had shared some of their technology and data. This will cost a lot of time and money but the reality will be that there will be independent production. Moderna has three patents on mRNA technology in South Africa so they can block the initiative at any time when they start to produce the vaccines.