- The Serum Institute of India and South Africa’s Aspen Pharmacare has signed a deal to manufacture four Vaccines used in the continent. The deal has come as a big relief for the local vaccine production, which was on the verge of closure, after receiving no orders for a COVID vaccine.
The Serum Institute of India and South Africa’s Aspen Pharmacare has signed a deal to manufacture four Vaccines used in the continent. The deal has come as a big relief for the local vaccine production, which was on the verge of closure, after receiving no orders for a COVID vaccine.
The four vaccines to be produced include — pneumococcal vaccine, rotavirus vaccine, polyvalent meningococcal vaccine and hexavalent vaccine. These will be manufactured from bulk drug substances supplied by India’s Serum Institute. Aspen Pharmacare also is expecting grant funding from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations, CEPI. CEPI’s chief executive officer, Richard Hatchett hailed the development as an important step for preventing the kinds of gross inequities in access to life-saving vaccines that emerged during the COVID pandemic. Africa, he said critically needed vaccine manufacturing capacity in Africa, for Africa to deal with  future epidemic or pandemic threats.
Doctors Without Borders Access Campaign in South Africa called for more than just fill-and-finish deals for sharing of technologies. Petro Terblanche, managing director of the South African company Afrigen, which reproduced Moderna’s MRNA COVID vaccine, felt that it will be better if Serum Institute is prepared to do partnerships with Africa and South Africa for end-to-end manufacturing and technology transfer to Africa. Dr. Ahmed Ogwell Ouma, deputy director of the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention, viewed the agreement as an important step for African vaccine manufacturing as less than 1% of vaccines currently used on the continent are locally manufactured.
Also read;
https://trendsnafrica.com/aspen-pharmacare-to-market-jj-vaccines-under-own-brand-in-africa/
https://trendsnafrica.com/six-african-countries-gets-technology-for-producing-covid-19-vaccines/
https://trendsnafrica.com/indian-pharma-company-inaugurates-production-facility-in-ethiopia/
