(4 minutes read)
- Health activists in Africa have criticized the action of Johnson & , the pharmaceutical company, for exporting vaccines produced in South Africa to countries in Europe
- Their (activists) grouse is that the Europe has already immunized a large number of their people and some of the European governments have donated vaccines to more needy countries
- Activists maintain that more than any other continent, Africa needs vaccines where less than 3% of the continent’s 1.3 billion people have been fully vaccinated
Health activists in Africa have criticized the action of Johnson & , the pharmaceutical company, for exporting vaccines produced in South Africa to countries in Europe. Their (activists) grouse is that the Europe has already immunized a large number of their people and some of the European governments have donated vaccines to more needy countries.
Activists maintain that more than any other continent, Africa needs vaccines where less than 3% of the continent’s 1.3 billion people have been fully vaccinated. The one-dose J&J vaccines were exported from South Africa, where they had been assembled and put into the vial. The South African activists called for a full disclosure of the South African government’s contracts with Johnson & Johnson and other vaccine manufacturers and threatened legal action to get the information. The revelation of exports of vaccines came when The New York Times reported that millions of J&J doses produced by Aspen Pharmacare in the South African city of Gqeberha (formerly Port Elizabeth) are being exported to Europe. The report also revealed that the South African government agreed to waive its right to ban exports to make sure that Johnson & Johnson could ship the vaccines abroad.
Aspen, a South African drug manufacturer, has a contract with Johnson & Johnson to assemble the ingredients of its COVID-19 vaccine, put it in vials and package. It is a process called “fill and finish” and was the first agreement for COVID-19 vaccines to be signed in Africa. The initiative was hailed by the African Union and the South African government as a boost for vaccine production and distribution in the continent. The factory in South Africa has the capacity to fill and finish about 220 million J&J doses annually.
South Africa has vaccinated more than 2.1 million people with the J&J vaccine. It has purchased 31 million doses of the vaccine, which are being delivered in large shipments from overseas. The South African manufacturing plant also supplies the vaccines. South Africa is also using the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine. About 7% of South Africans are fully vaccinated. An additional 9% have received one dose. Overall South Africa has given at least one vaccination dose to more than 9.7 million people and is currently administering about 200,000 shots per day.
