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JSE-listed pharmaceutical company Aspen will receive US$30 million (R523 million) from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and the Norway-headquartered Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations (CEPI) to help manufacture routine and outbreak vaccines for Africa
JSE-listed pharmaceutical company Aspen will receive US$30 million (R523 million) from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and the Norway-headquartered Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations (CEPI) to help manufacture routine and outbreak vaccines for Africa.
The US$15 million each from CEPI and the Gates Foundation is also expected to support a 10-year agreement between Aspen and the Serum Institute of India. Aspen is the biggest medicine producer on the continent, and the Serum Institute of India aims to expand the supply and sourcing of vaccines manufactured in Africa. It seeks to utilise its near-idle COVID-19 vaccine production lines in South Africa.
The agreement, which will become operational after 12 months or so, gives Aspen an assured pipeline of vaccine orders for years to come.
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Significantly, in March Aspen signed a contract with Johnson & Johnson to manufacture and sell an Aspen-branded Covid-19 vaccine, Aspenovax, throughout Africa. It also packaged and filled vials of the US company’s vaccine at its plant in Gqeberha.
