The Pan American Health Organisation (PAHO) has selected two biomedical centres, one each in Argentina and Brazil, as regional hubs to develop and produce mRNA-based vaccines to fight COVID-19 in Latin America, Reuters news agency reported on Wednesday.

According to the regional health agency, the idea is to tap existing manufacturing capacities to help transfer vaccine technology developed by Moderna (Nasdaq:MRNA) in the United States to a region badly hit by COVID-19 and still without access to enough vaccines.

PAHO said that the Bio-Manguinhos Institute of Technology on Immunobiologicals at Fiocruz, Brazil's premier biomedical lab, was selected for its history of vaccine manufacturing, and has already made "promising advances" developing mRNA vaccine technology.

Sinergium Biotech, a private sector biopharmaceutical company, was selected as the centre in Argentina and will partner with pharmaceutical lab mAbxience of the same group to develop and manufacture active vaccine ingredients, PAHO added.