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Browsing: COVID-19 Vaccine
Stavros Nicolaou, a Senior Executive at Aspen Pharmacare Group said in the absence of orders or commitments, Aspen is considering the repurposing of two COVID-19 production lines for the manufacture of other products.
“The continent would lose its only existing COVID vaccine manufacturing capacity, It would be a massive setback for Africa’s plans to localize and reduce its dependency on imported vaccines,” he said.
John Nkengasong, director of the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention, said global health security would be undermined if companies like Aspen were not backed.…
African leaders assembled at a global meeting to discuss the status of local pharmaceutical manufacturing on the continent, underscored the need to increase local production of vaccines and therapeutics to achieve greater public-health security.
“The production of vaccines and access to vaccines is an absolute priority,” Cyril Ramaphosa, President of South Africa, said Monday in opening remarks at the start of the two-day virtual meeting, convened by the African Union.
The meeting was attended by several African heads of state, health, finance, and trade ministers from across the continent, as well as officials from global financial institutions, foundations, pharmaceutical manufacturers, business leaders, and the general public. The African Development Bank was represented by Solomon Quaynor, Vice President Private Sector, Infrastructure, and Industrialization.
Although Africa consumes approximately one-quarter of global vaccines by volume, it manufactures less than 1% of its routine vaccines, with almost no outbreak vaccine manufacturing in place. The
COVID-19 Vaccine On African Soil
South African Aspen Pharmacare, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Aspen Holdings, has entered into an arrangement with Janssen Pharmaceutical, an arm of Johnson & Johnson, for the commercial reproduction of candidate COVID vaccine Ad26.COV2-S.
Aspen Pharmacare will do the formulation, filling as well as secondary packaging of the vaccine. After which it will be supplied to Johnson & Johnson.
COVID-19 Vaccine
The fine print of the agreement, including the terms of manufacturing, is yet to be concluded. Further, the technology transfer required to complete the successful implementation of the deal has not yet been finalized.
The manufacturing will be done at one of Aspen Pharmacare’s sterile facilities, which has the capacity to produce 300 million doses per annum, located in Port Elizabeth, South Africa.
Currency, the proposed vaccine is undergoing clinical trials.
To date, Aspen has poured in over $3 million of investment to prepare the …