In some Cape Town warehouses transformed into air-locked sterile rooms, young scientists are gathering and adjusting the equipment needed to reverse engineer a coronavirus vaccine that has yet to reach South Africa and most of the world’s poorest people.

The mission is urgent and aims to narrow vaccine disparities. By working to replicate Moderna’s COVID-19 shot, the scientists are effectively making an end-run around an industry that has vastly prioritized rich countries over poor in both sales and manufacturing.

The World Health Organization (WHO) is supporting them by coordinating vaccine research, training, and production hub in South Africa along with a related supply chain for critical raw materials.

“We are doing this for Africa at this moment, and that drives us,” said Emile Hendricks, a 22-year-old biotechnologist for Afrigen Biologics and Vaccines, the company trying to reproduce the Moderna shot. “We can no longer rely on these big superpowers to come in and save us.”

According to an analysis by the People’s Vaccine Alliance, only 0.7% of vaccines have been distributed to poor countries so far, while nearly half have gone to wealthy countries.

While pressure put on drug companies and the Biden administration to share donated doses has led nowhere, the UN-backed effort to balance out global vaccine distribution, known as COVAX, has failed to alleviate dire shortages in poor countries.

Until now, the WHO has never directly taken part in replicating a novel vaccine for current global use.

Martin Friede, a WHO vaccine research coordinator said "this is the first time we’re doing it to this level, because of the urgency and also because of the novelty of this technology."