EGYPT has a robust healthcare infrastructure, without which vaccine manufacture would not be possible.This country has properly trained and qualified human resources to make vaccines. Egypt’s medical expertise is beyond doubt.
It should therefore come as no surprise that the World Health Organisation chose Egypt to support the production of anti-coronavirus vaccines. Such accolades don’t come overnight. Rather, Egypt has been working relentlessly during the past seven years to improve its healthcare sector.
Presidential initiatives such as ‘100 Million Healthy Lives’, the national campaign to eradicate hepatitis C, and other schemes that have been taken up beyond our Egyptian borders in our African neighbours – all these bear witness to our know-how and hard work.
Besides, Egypt has a sense of responsibility towards everyone affected by the pandemic. Many Arab, African, European and Asian countries have received medical assistance from Egypt, thanks to a belief in building up partnerships in healthcare.
Furthermore, Egypt has been selected out of several African countries that will receive support to obtain mRNA technology, known as Messenger RNA, used in the manufacture of vaccines and other drugs to confront incurable diseases. This, surely, is yet further proof that Egypt is preparing for vaccine production for local use and in African countries.
This is based on the medical and manufacturing infrastructure in which Egypt has invested over the past years, enabling the country to have this technology.
mRNA is a sophisticated technology used by major international companies in the production of their vaccines against Covid-19.
The professionalism with which the Egyptian leadership dealt with the coronavirus pandemic file, either by providing vaccines from various sources or manufacturing them locally, has put it at the forefront of African countries that were chosen to transfer modern technology to produce vaccines.
Millions of Egyptians received the vaccines, which contributed to an increase in the rate of vaccination in the African continent.
Mohamed Awad Tag el-Din, a presidential advisor for health and preventive medicine, said that the Egyptian government has obtained vaccines from various sources as well as manufactured them locally.
“We have an institution that has existed for more than 100 years that is capable of manufacturing. In light of the severe shortage of vaccines and the inequality in distribution, it was necessary to localise the vaccine industry inside Egypt and the country has already started, along with South Africa,” Tag el-Din added.
The WHO’s move to transfer this technology has benefits other than the production of anti-coronavirus vaccines will mean that those countries that have been chosen to produce their own medicines need no longer rely on pharmaceutical companies in Europe and the Americas.
By 2023, Egypt and the selected countries will be producing a whole range of drugs and therapies to treat cancer, malaria, tuberculosis and HIV, in addition to anti-coronavirus vaccines.
Having chosen Egypt, the WHO can transfer mRNA technology and support the training specialists as part of a Vaccine Centre programme that goes beyond the major producers such as American companies Moderna and Pfizer.
According to Bloomberg News, WHO director general Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said the pandemic has shown the danger of relying on a small number of vaccine manufacturers.
Ghebreyesus criticised rich countries for grabbing the lion’s share of vaccine products through initial contracts. Many countries have been practically empty-handed for several months.
So far, more than 80 per cent of the African population has yet to receive their first dose of vaccine.
Discussion about this post