Egypt to start manufacturing a potential Covid-19 vaccine developed by Beijing through VACSERA

Health Minister Hala Zayed visited the ministry’s national vaccination centre, VACSERA, to follow up on its readiness to start manufacturing a potential coronavirus vaccine developed by Beijing.

According to a separate statement, Zayed inspected the efficiency of VACSERA’s infrastructure and equipment.

Last week, during Zayed’s meeting with Chinese Ambassador Liao Liqiang, the minister announced that Egypt has been selected by China to serve as a future hub for manufacturing its coronavirus vaccine in Africa.

The meeting discussed means of cooperation between VACSERA and a Chinese company carrying out trials to develop the vaccine to pave the way for manufacturing it in Egypt once it is proven effective, the ministry said in a statement on Monday.

Seven months into the COVID-19 pandemic, scientists and drug-makers around the world are testing existing antiviral drugs and working to come up with drugs that may prove effective against the virus to curb its spread until a vaccine is found.

Earlier this month, Egypt said it was working on developing four local coronavirus vaccines that have been registered by the World Health Organisation among a list of candidate vaccines in global pre-clinical evaluation.

The four vaccines, which have not yet been approved for human clinical trials, include DNA plasmid, inactivated-whole virus, influenza A H1N1 vector, and protein subunit vaccines.