A multi-billion dollar project to create a vaccine hub in Africa will go a long way in helping low- and middle-income countries manufacture mRNA vaccines at scale and on international standards.
Six African countries — Egypt, Kenya, Nigeria, Senegal, South Africa and Tunisia would be the first on the continent to receive the technology needed to produce mRNA vaccines, according to the World Health Organisation.
mRNA is the advanced technology used by companies such as Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna for their Covid-19 shots.
The hub has already established mRNA vaccine production at laboratory scale and is working towards commercial production. Training of the recipient countries will begin next month.
To ensure that all countries build the necessary capacity to produce their own vaccines and other health technologies, WHO said it has been working to establish a bio-manufacturing workforce training hub that will train people from all interested countries in scientific and clinical research and production capacity. 
The WHO established its global mRNA technology transfer hub after large-scale vaccine purchases by wealthy countries and companies prioritising sales to governments that could pay the highest price. 
Obviously, this has pushed low- and middle-income countries to the back of the queue for Covid-19 vaccines. 
WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said the pandemic has demonstrated more than any other event how reliance on a few companies to supply global public goods was both limiting and dangerous.
The global mRNA technology transfer hub was established last year to support manufacturers in low- and middle-income countries to produce their own vaccines, ensuring that they have all the necessary operating procedures and know-how to manufacture mRNA vaccines at scale and on international standards.
Primarily set up to address the Covid-19 emergency, the hub has the potential to expand manufacturing capacity for other products as well, putting countries in the driver’s seat when it comes to the kinds of vaccines and other products they need to address their health priorities. 
Depending on the infrastructure, workforce and clinical research and regulatory capacity in place, WHO and partners will work with the beneficiary countries to develop a roadmap and put in place the necessary training and support so that they can start producing vaccines as soon as possible.
“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,” Ghebreyesus said.
The initial effort is centred on mRNA technologies and biologicals, which are important for vaccine manufacturing and can also be used for other products, such as insulin to treat diabetes, cancer medicines and, potentially, vaccines for other priority diseases such as malaria, tuberculosis and HIV. 
The ultimate goal is to extend capacity building for national and regional production to all health technologies.
The WHO mRNA technology transfer hub is seen part of a larger effort aimed at empowering low- and middle-income countries to produce their own vaccines, medicines and diagnostics to address health emergencies and reach universal health coverage.