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WHO Director-General's remarks at mRNA Technology Transfer Programme meeting – 20 April 2023

https://www.who.int/news-room/speeches/item/who-director-general-s-remarks-at-mrna-technology-transfer-programme-meeting-20-april-2023

Glossary

1. South Africa Consortium: 남아프리카공화국 컨소시엄

2. mRNA technology transfer programme: mRNA 기술 이전 프로그램

3. reagents, vials: 시약, 바이알

Word Count: 442

Your Excellencies, dear colleagues and friends,

A heartfelt thank you to the South Africa Consortium for hosting this very important event. 

I visited the mRNA hub 13 months ago, and I am glad to know of the remarkable progress since then.   

The COVID-19 pandemic highlighted that one of our most important strategies for addressing global

health emergencies is to increase the capacity of all regions to produce medical countermeasures,

such as vaccines and therapeutics. That is why WHO is supporting this multilateral effort on the

mRNA technology transfer programme.  There are four key barriers to vaccine manufacturing in

low-and-middle-income countries.

First: access to know how; 

Second: a local skilled workforce; 

Third: a national regulatory authority to ensure quality and safety;

And fourth: sustainable investments and maintenance costs, along with access to a reliable market

of sufficient size. 

Countries have a crucial role to play in supporting local manufacturing, particularly at the early stages.

The short-term cost savings from procuring cheaper imported vaccines should be balanced against the

value of supporting domestic production capacity that will be critical to national health security.

 In light of these factors, there is need for a coherent regional strategy for mRNA vaccine production,

because it would not be sustainable for each nation to build these facilities. 

There is also a need for regional infrastructure planning, including how these vaccines will be procured

during emergencies. Also needed is a regional plan for supply chain ingredients, as some countries produce

reagents, vials and other important components.

All of this underscores the need for coordination, collaboration and coherence at the national, regional and

global levels.  WHO believes that the mRNA Technology Transfer Programme holds huge promise, not just

for increasing access to vaccines against COVID-19 but also for other diseases affecting lower- and

middle-income countries for which there are either no vaccines or the vaccines are insufficient. 

For this reason, WHO is establishing an mRNA research and development network to provide a collaborative

platform to expand mRNA vaccine pipelines, accelerate product development and access to know-how.

I thank the South African Consortium and the programme partners, and the funders for their support,

and all the experts who contributed to the success of this landmark programme. 

The support from donors is very important. I would like to thank you for the support you have so far provided.

Considering the ambition that we have now, I think continued support, even bigger support will be necessary. 

I hope you continue to support this precious project that will bring a paradigm shift in addressing the serious

problem we faced, the equity problem during the pandemic, so it is not repeated again.

I thank you.