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Company type | Private |
---|---|
Industry | Biotech |
Founded | 2014[1] |
Headquarters | , |
Key people | Mehmet Levent Selamoglu (Chairperson) Petro Terblanche (CEO) [1] |
Products | Vaccines |
Owner | Avacare South Africa The Industrial Development Corporation of South Africa [1] |
Website | afrigen |
Afrigen (officially Afrigen Biologics and Vaccines) is a South African biotech company, based in Cape Town. [2]
Afrigen was founded in 2014, as a partnership between the Infectious Disease Research Institute (IDRI), which was a non-government organization registered in the USA, and later transformed to the Access to Advanced Health Initiative (AAHI), and the Industrial Development Corporation of South Africa (IDC). [1]
In November 2017, Avacare Health acquired the IDRI stake in Afrigen. [1]
In February 2022, Afrigen was the world's first company to manufacture an mRNA COVID-19 vaccine using a publicly available sequence from a different manufacturer. The vaccine was made using Moderna's data. [3]
Major pharmaceutical companies Pfizer, BioNTech, and Moderna all declined the WHO's request to share their technology to expand vaccine access. As a result, the WHO chose a consortium, including Afrigen, for a pilot project to give poor and middle-income countries the knowledge to make COVID vaccines themselves. Afrigen also agreed to help train companies in Argentina and Brazil. [3]
As of 2023, Afrigen had developed a COVID-19 vaccine, and was working on mRNA vaccines for tuberculosis and HIV. [4] [5] [2]
In January 2025, it was announced that Afrigen is pioneering research which aims to develop the first mRNA-based vaccine against Rift Valley fever, a mosquito-borne disease affecting countries across Africa and the Middle East. This research is backed by a R116 million grant from the Norway-based foundation, the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations (CEPI). [6]
Afrigen operates from 6 customized warehouses that house research and product development labs, GMP vaccine manufacturing, GMP active ingredient production for health and wellness products, quality control labs, product stability testing, a compounding pharmacy, as well as warehousing for raw materials and products. [1]
Afrigen's funding comes from numerous organizations, including the World Health Organization (WHO) and the Medicines Patent Pool (MPP). [1]