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Can Africa produce its own Covid vaccines?

Africa remains the least vaccinated continent – could waiving intellectual property rights be the key to success?

It’s probably fair to say that the one thing the whole world has collectively been thinking about in the last year is Covid and the vaccines that will defeat the infection. Although some countries in Africa have done well at getting their citizens the jab, Africa remains the least vaccinated continent. Lately, there’s been a lot of discussion about what difference could be made to the situation if the big pharmaceutical companies waived their intellectual property rights on their vaccines -- allowing countries to copy and produce the formula cheaply. Today Nancy Kacungira looks at whether Africa can produce its own vaccines.

Host: Nancy Kacungira (@Kacungira on Twitter)

Guests: Rhoda Odihambo, ³ÉÈË¿ìÊÖ Africa Health correspondent/ Catherine Kyobutungi, Executive Director of the African Population and Health Research Centre.

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16 minutes

Podcast