By Wendell Roelf

CAPE TOWN, (Reuters) – South Africa’s Afrigen Biologics used the publically available sequence of Moderna (NASDAQ)’s COVID-19-mRNA vaccine, to create its own version, Afrigen’s top executive announced on Thursday.

It would also be the first vaccine candidate to be created based on an existing vaccine, without approval from the developer. It’s also the first ever mRNA-based vaccine to be developed at scale in a laboratory on the African continent.

A consortium that included Afrigen was selected by the World Health Organization (WHO), last year, to provide low- and middle-income countries with the knowledge-how necessary to produce COVID-19 vaccines. This project follows the market leader in the mRNA COVID vaccine. Pfizer (NYSE:), BioNTech, and Moderna declined the WHO’s request for their technological and expert knowledge.

Partners and WHO hope that the hub will reduce inequalities in vaccine access between poorer and rich countries. With 99% of Africa’s vaccines being imported, the rest manufactured in Africa.

The majority of world vaccine supplies were seized by wealthy nations during the global pandemic.

Biovac South Africa, which is a partially state-owned vaccine manufacturer, will become the first to receive the technology. Afrigen also offered to train Brazilian and Argentina-based companies.

After failing to get onboard Moderna and Pfizer, WHO’s Cape Town hub decided to do it all alone in September.

Moderna chose to use its vaccine due to the abundance of information available and their promise to not enforce patents during the epidemic. We don’t know what happens after this.

U.N.-backed Medicines Patent Pool NASDAQ: (MPP) stated that it is in discussions with Moderna regarding possible access to its patents

Moderna and BioNTech announced plans to create mRNA vaccine plants in Africa under pressure from lower-income countries. However, production remains a ways off.

Biovac will fill the Pfizer BioNTech vaccin, but the substance itself will be made in Europe.

Petro Terblanche of Afrigen, the managing director, said to Reuters that they didn’t copy Moderna. Instead, they developed their own processes, as Moderna doesn’t provide any technology.

“We began with the Moderna sequencing because it gives us the best material to start. But this is not Moderna’s vaccine, it is the Afrigen mRNA hub vaccine,” Terblanche said.

In collaboration with Johannesburg’s University of the Witwatersrand it was able to produce its first micro-litre batches of COVID-19 vaccines in Cape Town.

Terblanche stated that it is working to develop a next-generation mRNA vaccine, which doesn’t require freezing temperatures for storage. This was required for Moderna and Pfizer doses. It would also be more suited for Africa’s hot climate with its limited infrastructure and health services.

Afrigen said she was training staff from overseas partners, including Thermo Fisher Scientific (NYSE :).

We will make the clinical trial batches in about six months, which is (meaning) that they should be ready for human consumption within 6 months. Terblanche said that the November 2022 target was his goal.

Training online for companies that want to get the shot began with Argentina and Brazil last year. Afrigen anticipates that more companies will join the program in the coming month.