The Chemical Industries Education and Training Authority (CHIETA) has invested R3.5 million to advance vaccine development at the Walter Sisulu and North-West universities.
A number of locally made candidate vaccines – including one for Covid-19 – received the boost for a project headed by Professor Markus Depfenhart, who has been involved at both institutions in developing vaccines, and pandemic management interventions in Africa.
CHIETA CEO Yershen Pillay said vaccine development was a scarce skill on the African continent. “At the same time, locally made vaccines give us the best chance of improving our pandemic management. Only by starting with local vaccine design and formulation – created to suit our local conditions – will SA and the African continent end up manufacturing on the continent, and have security of supply in times of pandemic.”
Pillay said a local vaccine may hold considerable commercial and social impact value.
“Just as with SARS, MERS and H1N1 ‘swine flu’ viruses, Covid-19 was not the first virus to disrupt our world in this lifetime – and it won’t be the last. Bolstering our local competency in the fields of vaccine development and pandemic management will surely pay off in the long run. It is crucial to invest in these skills now, even though it may seem at times that the pandemic is slowing down.”
The Walter Sisulu University and CHIETA have signed a memorandum of agreement to conduct pre-clinical trials to test the efficacy of candidate Covid-19 vaccines which have already been developed.
Depfenhart has developed a Covid-19 candidate on a DNA platform which is said to hold promise in a number of aspects.
“’The collaboration is not only about the fact that we are looking at the Covid-19 pandemic, but we’re also looking at other viruses that are challenging us in the African Continent like Malaria, but Covid-19 is one of the first that we will be engaging with,” said WSU vice-chancellor, Professor Rushiella Nolundi Songca.
Political Bureau