South Africa’s Aspen Pharmacare (APNJ.J) negotiated a licensing deal in November to package and sell the Johnson & Johnson (JNJ.N) vaccine for COVID-19 and distribute it throughout Africa. read more The World Health Organization (WHO) described the agreement as a “transformative moment” in an effort to smooth out the sharp disparities in access to vaccines for COVID. Sign up now for FREE unlimited access to Reuters.com Register With only one-sixth of adults in Africa fully vaccinated, according to the latest WHO figures from the end of March, Aspen agreed to sell a vaccine against Covid-19 under the Aspen brand, Aspenovax, 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. However, “No orders have been received for Aspenovax,” Aspen chief executive Stavros Nikolaou told Reuters by telephone. “If we do not receive vaccine orders, then clearly there will be very little logic in maintaining the lines we are currently using for production,” he said of the COVID-19 vaccine plant in Gqeberha, Eastern Cape. . African countries have struggled with logistical issues, lack of qualified personnel, cooling chains and other problems related to the distribution of vaccines. Another issue is that, having initially left Africa out in the cold, donor countries have since paid and the continent is now well stocked. Nikolaou said that in the long run the goal was to focus on the production of other vaccines, but that the company had committed to these initial volumes to buy time to start operating. “If you do not break this short-term gap with orders, you can not maintain these capabilities on the continent,” he said, at a time when health workers want to vaccinate three-quarters of the continent’s population. The African Union’s goal is to produce 60% of all vaccines delivered to Africa locally by 2040, up from the current 1%, and many such factories are being set up. “If Aspen does not get production, what are the chances of any of the other initiatives?” said Nikolaou. Sign up now for FREE unlimited access to Reuters.com Register Edited by Hugh Lawson Our role models: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.
