Moderna Shot Copied by WHO’s Africa Hub May Be Made Globally
- Human trials of shot made by mRNA hub to start by May
- Patents may complicate development of shots for other diseases
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Afrigen Biologics & Vaccines plans to start human trials of its Covid-19 vaccine candidate by May, part of a World Health Organization-backed plan to develop locally-made inoculations in the developing world.
Afrigen, which is part of the WHO’s mRNA vaccine technology transfer hub in Cape Town, said in a joint statement the vaccine has shown “a strong immune response” in pre-clinical trials in mice. The vaccine was made by copying the publicly-available sequence of the Moderna Inc. shot provided by Stanford University.