A South African biotech firm stated that it has produced the first mRNA COVID vaccine made on the continent using Moderna’s sequence and that it will be ready for clinical trials in November.

According to reports, Cape Town-based Afrigen Biologics and Vaccines is leading the pilot project, backed by the World Health Organization (WHO) and the COVAX initiative, to tweak Moderna’s shot.

The Afrigen’s managing director Petro Terblanche stated that “At laboratory scale, we have a vaccine that we now need to test,”. She also added that the first shot was ready during the second week of January.

Tests on animals will start next month, “but the human studies will only start around November 2022,” she said after meeting a group of officials sponsoring the project.

CEOAFRICA gathered that Afrigen researchers sequenced the publicly available genetic code that Moderna used to make their vaccine, made the DNA and the RNA, and produced their own shot.

“We are the first to take the sequence developed by Stanford University and used by Moderna for their great vaccine, to design and develop a vaccine produced at laboratory scale,” she said.

And “we have completed the process from the design to a final formulation, but it’s small scale, but it’s a good start, it’s a fabulous start,” the laboratory chief said.

“This is the first yet very important step in empowering low- and middle-income countries to create a fully integrated vaccine production sector.”

She spoke after the UN-backed global Medicines Patent Pool gave the firm a 39 million euro ($45 million) grant.

Their mRNA vaccine can be kept at warmer temperatures, making it easier to store in low- and middle-income settings. The original jab requires expensive -25°C to -15°C refrigeration’

Charles Gore, MPP’s executive director, said in a statement that his organization was “delighted to support Afrigen and its African partners to greatly expand local manufacturing capacity and reduce today’s gross inequity.”

The grant will cover the technology transfer hub’s work for five years, through 2026.