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- A South African firm will begin producing the Pfizer-BioNTech coronavirus vaccine
- It is the first time that the vaccine is being produced in Africa. The Biovac Institute based in Cape Town will manufacture the vaccine for distribution across Africa
- This will help address the continent’s desperate need for more vaccine doses in the midst of third wave
- Currently, Africa is 99% dependent on imports for its vaccines
- The U.S. is investing in both South Africa and Senegal to produce its own vaccines
A South African firm will begin producing the Pfizer-BioNTech coronavirus vaccine. It is the first time that the vaccine is being produced in Africa. The Biovac Institute based in Cape Town will manufacture the vaccine for distribution across Africa. This will help address the continent’s desperate need for more vaccine doses in the midst of the third wave.
The ingredients for the vaccine will be sourced from Europe. The South African pharmaceutical company will blend the components, put them in vials and package them for distribution. The production is expected to begin in 2022 with a goal of reaching more than 100 million finished doses annually. Vaccines will be distributed among the 54 countries of Africa and is billed as a major step for increasing availability of jab in the continent.
The move, experts feel, would help the availability of vaccines in the continent but not enough to achieve vaccine independence on the African continent. Pfizer’s goal is to provide access to its vaccine to people everywhere. Vast majority of its vaccine doses have been sold in bilateral deals to rich countries. Only a small amount was made available to the U.N.-backed effort to share COVID-19 vaccines fairly.
South Africa has purchased 40 million doses, which are arriving in weekly deliveries. Aspen Pharmacare’s factory in Gqebera is making the J&J vaccine in the same “fill and finish” process. The firm has the capacity to make more than 200 million doses of the vaccine annually. The J&J vaccines made in South Africa are also being distributed across the African continent.
More than 220,000 people in South Africa are getting shots on weekdays. More than 5.5 million of South Africa’s 60 million people have received. Close to 67% of its population will be covered by February 2022. Vaccination levels are low across Africa, with less than 2% of the continent’s population of 1.3 billion having received at least one shot, according to the Africa Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
To help alleviate the vaccine shortage on the continent, the U.S. is delivering in the coming weeks the first batches of 25 million doses of vaccines. These many shots will be shared with the African Union. Currently, Africa is 99% dependent on imports for its vaccines. The U.S. is investing in both South Africa and Senegal to produce its own vaccines.
