Geneva (VNA) – Vietnam is among the five countriesnewly selected to receive mRNA vaccine technology transfer from a globalbiomanufacturing training hub established by the World Health Organisation(WHO) in South Africa.

Vietnam, Bangladesh, Indonesia,Pakistan and Serbia will receive support from the global mRNA hub in SouthAfrica, WHO said in a press conference on February 23. Those countries werevetted by a group of experts and proved that they had the capacity to absorbthe technology and, with targeted training, move to production stage relativelyquickly.

During the event, WHO also announced the establishment of asimilar hub in the Republic of Korea. These hubs will serve all low- andmiddle-income countries wishing to produce biologicals, such as vaccines,insulin, monoclonal antibodies and cancer treatments.

“One of the key barriers to successful technology transferin low- and middle-income countries is the lack of a skilled workforce and weakregulatory systems,” said WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus.“Building those skills will ensure that they can manufacture the health productsthey need at a good quality standard so that they no longer have to wait at theend of the queue.”

“Although Vietnam is a developing country, we have had a lotof experience in vaccine development over the past decades,” said Nguyen ThanhLong, Vietnamese Minister of Health in a virtual address.

“Our National Regulatory Authority (NRA) has also beenrecognised by WHO. We believe that in participating in this initiative, Vietnamwill be able to produce the mRNA vaccine in large scale, not only for domesticconsumption but also for other countries in the region and the world,contributing to reducing inequalities in access to vaccines,” Long said.

WHO has announced six African countries – Egypt, Kenya,Nigeria, Senegal, South Africa and Tunisia – and two Latin American nations – Argentinaand Brazil – as the first on their continents to receive mRNA technology fromthe global hub in South Africa.

The global organisation said it is currently prioritising countries that donot have mRNA technology but already have some manufacturing infrastructure andcapacity. It will enter into discussions with other interested countries andother mRNA technology recipients will be announced in the coming months. Trainingis expected to be provided for the selected countries from March./.