JOHANNESBURG, May 1 (Reuters) – Africa’s first COVID-19 vaccination plant, touted last year as an innovator for an under-vaccinated continent frustrated by slow Western handouts, risks closing after receiving no orders, an executive said. director of the company on Saturday.
South African company Aspen Pharmacare (APNJ.J) negotiated a licensing deal in November to package and sell the COVID-19 vaccine to Johnson & Johnson (JNJ.N) and distribute it in Africa. Read more
The World Health Organization (WHO) called the deal a “transformational moment” in a bid to redress serious inequalities in access to COVID vaccines.
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With only one-sixth of adults in Africa fully vaccinated, according to the latest WHO figures from late March, Aspen’s agreement to sell Aspen-19 vaccine against COVID-19 across Africa seemed like a sure bet.
South Africa, which has vaccinated 30% of its population, also appears to be experiencing a fifth wave of infections.
Still, “No orders have been received for Aspenovax,” Aspen senior director Stavros Nikolaou told Reuters by telephone.
“If we do not receive any vaccine orders, then there will obviously be very little reason to keep the lines we are currently using for production,” he told the COVID-19 vaccine plant in Gqeberha, Eastern Cape.
African countries are struggling with logistical problems, lack of qualified personnel, refrigeration chains and other problems related to the spread of vaccines. Another problem is that after initially leaving Africa cold, donor countries have since paid and the continent is now well supplied.
Nicolau said the long-term goal was to move to other vaccines, but the company relied on those initial volumes to gain time to establish the operation.
“If you don’t break this short-term difference with orders, you can’t maintain those capacities on the continent,” he said, at a time when health officials want to vaccinate three-quarters of the continent’s population.
The African Union aims to produce 60% of all vaccines administered locally in Africa by 2040, compared to the current 1%, and several such plants are being set up.
“If Aspen does not receive production, what is the chance for any of the other initiatives?” Nikolaou said.
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Edited by Hugh Lawson
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