Under the new agreement, the National Administration of Laboratories and Health Institutes (ANLIS-Malbrán) will develop lipid nanoparticles, essential elements for national vaccine production.
Buenos Aires, 2 October 2023 (PAHO)- The Director of the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO), Dr. Jarbas Barbosa today signed a new agreement with Argentine health, science and technology authorities to strengthen and increase capacities for the development and future production of mRNA vaccines for regional use.
“This agreement will enable us to strengthen the mRNA vaccine production ecosystem, ensuring greater sustainability,” for the PAHO/WHO technology transfer project in Argentina, Dr. Barbosa said. The country’s future development of these vaccines will also “help to reduce the region’s dependence on other countries for this technology, enabling us to move towards more equitable access,” he added.
The agreement takes place within the framework of PAHO’s Regional Platform to Advance the Manufacturing of Vaccines and other Health Technologies, and complements the World Health Organization (WHO) and Medicines Patent Pool (MPP) technology transfer program for the development of mRNA vaccines in low- and middle-income countries. Participants include Sinergium Biotech of Argentina and the Institute of Technology on Immunobiologicals (Bio-Manguinhos) of Brazil.
The Dr. Carlos Malbrán National Administration of Laboratories and Health Institutes (ANLIS-Malbrán), under the Ministry of Health of Argentina, will now form part of the production chain through the development of lipid nanoparticles, essential elements in the production of mRNA vaccines.
PAHO, with financial support from the Canadian Global Initiative for Vaccine Equity (CanGIVE), will provide equipment and elements needed for ANLIS-Malbrán to produce the nanoparticles. This will enhance sustainability by ensuring the Institute does not have to resort to external suppliers to obtain this resource.
“It is extremely important that Argentina has been selected along with Brazil to carry out the technology transfer of a messenger RNA vaccine,” Minister of Health of Argentina, Carla Vizzotti, said during the meeting. “After a long year of joint work between the National Agency for the Promotion of Research, Technological Development and Innovation (Agencia I+D+i), Malbrán, the Ministry of Health and a private production plant, we have reached the signing of this agreement, which will enable us to move forward with equipping, strengthening and transferring the technology needed to benefit the Region.”
“Argentina has guaranteed and universalized the right to health. This is what drives our industrial and scientific talent to develop new solutions, and is why we are part of the process,” Fernando Peirano, President of Agencia I+D+I, said. The agency will contribute to the project through the development of research and capacity building in Argentina.
The signing took place during Dr. Barbosa’s official visit to Argentina, which will include a tour of the Sinergium Biotech plant to learn about advances with the project and to finalize the signing of the agreement.
Progress toward regional production of mRNA vaccines
To continue advancing towards the production of mRNA vaccines in the region, PAHO, the Oswaldo Cruz Foundation (Fiocruz) and the Butantan Institute, the main producers of immunobiologicals in Brazil, recently launched the first edition of a joint course on vaccine development and production that seeks to strengthen the capacities of human resources in Mercosur countries.
In July, PAHO signed a letter of agreement with Bio-Maguinhos/Fiocruz for preclinical trials of an mRNA vaccine being developed in Brazil. If this technology proves safe and effective, it could be licensed free of charge to low- and middle-income countries in the region.
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