Africa

Flush with the success of its mRNA Covid-19 vaccine, BioNTech is now gearing up for one of the biggest challenges in vaccine development — which comes without potential profit.

Many African nations rely on global vaccine sharing scheme COVAX or donations from countries like China and India.

Late in the Covid-19 pandemic, a spotlight has been cast on Africa as the continent has lagged behind on vaccine rollouts.

the Cape Town-based firm would ramp up production of the COVID-19 vaccine before reaching output of 100 million doses a year around early 2023.

U.S. President Joe Biden has pledged to share 80 million U.S.-made vaccines with countries around the world to protect the most vulnerable and stem transmission of the coronavirus.

Deaths have climbed steeply for the past five weeks to 6,273 last week, just a percentage point shy of its weekly peak recorded in January.

The Moroccan government will invest $500 million in the build, which will be primary dedicated to African vaccine manufacture.

In early March, the CEO of vaccine alliance Gavi, one of the organisations co-leading COVAX, had said the aim was to supply Africa - whose total population is 1.3 billion - with 720 million doses in 2021.

Some 1.8 million children worldwide live with HIV, but only half receive any treatment, often hard to administer due to the bitter taste or incorrectly dosed by crushing adult pills

The COVAX programme co-led by the World Health Organization (WHO) for fair distribution of vaccines is planning a shake-up as it has been shunned by rich countries and failed to meet the needs of the poorest.

The World Health Organization picked Afrigen for a pilot to give poor and middle-income countries the know-how and licenses to make COVID-19 vaccines.

The initiative will complement efforts already underway by the COVAX vaccine-sharing program, which is co-run by the World Health Organization.

In unusually impassioned remarks, Cyril Ramaphosa lambasted a resistance to calls by India and South Africa for temporary patent waivers to ramp up production.

"Regional production hubs, in tandem with open supply chains, offer a more promising path to preparedness for future health crisis."

The World Health Organization this week declared that the Ebola outbreak in Guinea, which has lasted four months, is over.