Sharjah24 – Reuters: Moderna Inc MRNA.O said on Monday it plans to develop and begin testing vaccines targeting 15 of the world's most worrisome pathogens by 2025 and will permanently wave its COVID-19 vaccine patents for shots intended for certain low- and middle-income countries.
The U.S. biotechnology company also said it will make its messenger RNA (mRNA) technology available to researchers working on new vaccines for emerging and neglected diseases through a program called mRNA Access.
Moderna announced its strategy ahead of the Global Pandemic Preparedness Summit sponsored by the UK government and the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations (CEPI), an international coalition set up five years ago to prepare for future disease threats.
Moderna is already collaborating with partners on vaccines against some of the 15 pathogens, which include Chikungunya, Crimean-Congo hemorrhagic fever, Dengue, Ebola, Malaria, Marburg, Lassa fever, MERS and COVID-19.
Early in the COVID pandemic, Moderna pledged not to enforce its vaccine patents during the emergency phase of the health crisis.
That has allowed for development of a vaccine manufacturing plant in Africa backed by the World Health Organization as part of a pilot project to give poor and middle-income countries the know-how to make COVID-19 vaccines.
Moderna said it will make that pledge permanent for the 92 low- and middle income countries that qualify for assistance under the COVAX Advance Market Commitment (AMC) led by the GAVI vaccine alliance.
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